FM CLC Data Sheet Index - MagnumMacKivler/RLCPT2 GitHub Wiki

Monk where's the Train Master?

Fairbanks-Morse Locomotives came from an interesting place - not from Steam, but from maritime diesel engines. Sporting the unusual opposed piston engine design and in-house electron- Westinghouse electr- GE electronics, FM locomotives had an incredible amount of power, great lugging capacity, and had room to grow. They were arguably ahead of the curve in the 1940s/1950s.

It does say something that just the pure existence of the 2000hp Erie Built (IN 1945!!!!) rekted Baldwin caused Westinghouse to freakout (as the Erie Built used GE gear and had a ton of horsepower for the time), which caused them to begin a hostile takeover of Baldwin, and seriously, what the hell Baldwin? Why did you HURT MY LIMA Why did you cancel your actually good engine? You know you had a chance of doing insanely well, right? Stupid Westinghouse good thing my Virginian order got GE gear because you suck. You didn't need to do that to Lima, okay? God damn it baldwin man westinghouse you mor-

Fairbanks-Morse would eventually run into fatal trouble. Considering the poor sales of the Consolidated Line, they pulled off a seemingly incredible turn-around with the Train Master. They were getting interest from railroads left and right, and even scared the other locomotive manufacturers into making a response, such as Alco's RSD7. However, it was not to be, as a family ownership feud and a hostile takeover by Penn-Texas terminally eroded the railroad's trust in FM. This probably caused the cancellation of a eye-tearing amount of Train Master orders. By the late 1950s, FM was slowly petering out of the locomotive business, only occasionally selling locomotives. They sold their last in 1963.

They did fight off that takeover though - they played Their Uno Reverse Card (TM) and hostiley takeovered the hostile takoveree, and formed the Fairbanks-Whitney corporation because Pratt & Whitney, but then The Colt, so Colt Industries. Colt Locomotive Division, huh, wouldn't that be COOL, PENN-TEXAS AAAAAAAAA although that family-ownership ended so it kinda didn't work but it did???

Fairbanks Morse, at least in the engine manufacturing form, is still around today. They still make a variety of historical engines, such as their famous 38D which went in their locomotives, and, ironically, the Alco 251F.

FM Locomotive designations introduce some problems - because they're based off of the locomotive features, they can conflict. They don't usually have known unique model numbers either. Even worse, FM didn't follow perfect stepped generations - they might build a locomotive following an older design! These facts resulted in FM having something like 30 locomotives, all with conflicting names, in around maybe 5 kinda distinct groups. The list below will attempt to categorize them in some rational matter, and may not be entirely perfect. I also tried to make it readable, but the repeating series of identical designations can make it difficult.

Left to add:

  • Redo data sheets

📄 Denotes a "paper" engine: something that was designed and catalogued, but never built.

🛠 Denotes a notable rebuild.

🍁 Denotes a locomotive only ever built by the Canadian Locomotive Company.

⚙️ Denotes a locomotive powered by FM prime movers but not built by FM. (e.g St. Louis Car Company)

Not Made By FM, but Kinda is (very early)

Switchers

  • RDG 97 ⚙️

Cab Units

  • OP800 ⚙️
  • Erie-Built ⚙️ [1944] [Specification ALT100.3]
Note: Erie Built specification may be only for the Milwaukee Road locomotives. Also, saying that it was built either by FM or General Electric isn't exactly correct. It's pretty much entirely FM designed, but manufactured by GE at Erie.

Eraless Paper Locomotives - oh, so cursed

Locomotives that technically existed on paper - but don't have any semi-concrete dates attached. Do keep in mind that locomotives from FM are basically custom-ordered - if you wanted an FM variant of the H12-64, you could get one. However, the ones listed here are ones that are either:

  1. described in official literature (brochures, manuals)
  2. likely to have existed based off found evidence

Switchers

  • H8-44 📄
  • Cow-calf articulated H12-44 set (three trucks) 📄

Road-Switchers

  • H16-64 📄
  • H20-66 📄 [end cab]

Train Master styled small export units (75/hp per cylinder)

  • H6-66/64/44 📄
  • H8-66/64/44 📄

Primary Production Era Hood Units - oh god why is there so many

Locomotives that were:

  1. made between the mid 40s - mid 50s or so
  2. H units (hood)
  3. Actually produced, or have concrete dates for the paper locomotives If there is a question mark with the date, it means I'm not sure about it, or haven't checked.

Switchers

  • H10-44 [1944] [Casted GSC Frame]
  • H10-44 [1945] [Welded Frame]
.

Road-Switchers

  • H12-44 🍁 [?] [Optimized H12-44 variant]
  • H12-64 🍁 [1955]
.
  • H15-44 [1947]
  • H16-44 [1950] [First Gen]
  • H16-44 [?] [Optimized]
  • H16-44 [1953] [Train Master Variant]
.
  • H16-66 [1950] [Introductory Model]
  • H16-66 [1953] [Train Master Variant]
.
  • H20-44 [1947] [Introductory Model]
  • H20-44 [?] [Optimized]
.
  • H24-66 "Train Master" [1953] [Specification 500, 501, 550]

Slugs

  • H66 📄 [1957] [H24-66 slug]

Consolidated Line (C-Liners) - FM you did it too late, morons, this is why you don't strike for 9 months

Consolidated Line locomotives were a group of very standardized cab units, designed for both passenger and freight service. They started production in early 1950. You could purchase C-Liners all the way up to about 1953-54 or so, when the Train Masters came out. American railroads never even purchased one beyond 1952. If you were looking for high horsepower from FM before 1953 or so, you would get a C-Liner.

Units

  • CFA16-4 | CPA16-4 🍁 | CPA16-5 🍁
  • CFA20-4 | CPA20-5
  • CFA24-4 📄 | CPA24-5
Note: C-Liners could be ordered both in Passenger or Freight variants (CPA vs CFA), the main differences being the truck used on the rear bolster, gearing, and a steam generator. Of course, in reality, both of these variants might not have been ordered and only one of them may have ever existed, even though a railroad theoretically could've bought either variant.
Note: C-Liners could also be ordered in CFB/CPB variants, AKA B units. They would come with all the same options either way.
Note: The passenger 1600hp locomotives could be ordered in either -4 or -5 variants. The difference between the two was most likely steam generator size, and definitely feedwater tank capacity.

WHAT FUG FM - Nevermind

Wacky stuff that FM had at the very end.

Passenger

  • P12-42 "Speed Merchant" [1957]
  • Train Master styled passenger unit 📄 [late 50s, complete unknown at this time]

i̴͉̺̖̳͇͊̈́͗̌̇̏͠ṱ̶̟̪̪͚̮͊̅͒͂s̸̱̟̯͕̱̦̹͔̠̳̙̜͙̣̈́ ̵͉̞̼͇̦̓͊͂͋̉̉́̓̀̋̀̍͘ͅH̷̖̮̗͖̩͙̳͍̓́͒̅̎́͑̃̋̄̊̀͋͗̕E̵̤̝͓͙̩̩̥̙̞̜̋̓͜R̶̛̠̭̲̱͈̝̞̊̍͜͜͝E̵̘̻̭̭̠̍͜ͅ

Other stuff, and CLC - fairbanks m'orse didn't know how to do 1 thing so they did all the things

Railroad side products, and CLC happy fun time adventures.

Gasoline Locomotives [FM]

  • No. 1

Motor Cars [FM]

  • No. 14
  • No. 16
  • No. 19
  • No. 20
  • Model 40-B | No. 40B
  • Model 53
  • Model 57D
  • Model 101
  • Model 757

Itty Bitty Switchers [CLC]

  • 25DE26 [Whitcomb]
  • 30T [unknown]
  • 50T [Whitcomb]
  • 75T | 75DE12C (?) [Whitcomb]
  • 40-H4-A1 [Home-grown design]
  • H44A1 | H44A3 (?) | DT-2 [Home-grown design]

Notes