For those of us who dont know, the hobby of model railroading and HO scale both date back long before WWII. Some of us have been in the hobby ALMOST that long.
I have no idea what that thing IS.
However, going by the fact that it has the 'bulldog' nose, and the underframe assembly, I would say it is an early attempt at modeling an EMD.
The first EMD's had the headlight inside the nose, so the fairing on top of the nose, that we are used to seeing, wasnt there.
Years ago, model manufacturers sold steam engines as 3 seperate kits...the mechanism, the boiler, and the tender. That may have been the idea here...buy the body and the mechanism seperately. That MAY not be the correct mechanism for the body.
On the roof there are 2 sets of exhausts. EMD E units had 2 engine/generator sets, so they had 2 sets of exhausts.
EMD F units rode on 4 wheel trucks.
HOWEVER, in 1937, EMD produced a locomotive called the TA. I THINK it had a single engine, and it rode on 4 wheel trucks, but the body was around 60 feet long.
At the same time, 1937, they made the EA, which had 2 engines and rode on 6 wheel trucks. The body was around 75 feet long.
The FT was the 4 axle freight unit introduced in 1939. They were about 45 feet long.
Put an HO scale ruler on the model and see how long it is. If it is 45', its an FT. If 60' long its a TA, and if its 70' long its an EA. If you dont have a scale rule, an F unit would be about 6" long, a TA about 8 1/2" and an EA about 10 1/2" long.
My guess is that its a TA and it has two sets of exhausts because the manufacturer didnt know any better.
Manufacturers back then didnt have plans to go by, they modeled what they saw, and the manufacturer may have seen both TAs and EAs, one having 4-wheel trucks and the other having 2 engines. The manufacturer probably didnt know there was a difference.