Fairbanks-Morse - Railroad Locomotives

Railroad Locomotives

Shortly after it won its first US Navy contract, the company produced a 300 hp 5 x 6 engine that saw limited use in railcar applications on the B&O, Milwaukee Road, and a few other lines. Two of the 5 x 6s were placed in an experimental center-cab switcher locomotive being developed by the Reading Railroad (road #87, built in 1939 by the St. Louis Car Company, or SLCC, and scrapped in 1953). A 5 x 6 powered the plant switcher at F-M's plant.

In 1939 the SLCC placed F-M 800 hp 8 x 10 engines in six streamlined railcars, known as the FM OP800. In 1944 F-M began production of its own 1,000 hp (750 kW) yard switcher, the H-10-44. Milwaukee Road #760 (originally delivered as #1802), the first Fairbanks Morse locomotive constructed in their own plant, is now preserved in operating condition at the Illinois Railway Museum. Fairbanks Morse and Company, like other locomotive producers, was subject to wartime restrictions regarding the number and type of railroad related products it could manufacture. After World War II, North American railways began phasing out their aging steam locomotives and sought to replace them with diesel locomotives. Fairbanks Morse and its competitors sought to capitalize on this. The Virginian Railway was an early advocate of Fairbanks Morse power, buying this company's products rather than those of other manufacturers such as EMD or Baldwin.

In December 1945, Fairbanks Morse and Company produced its first streamlined cab-equipped dual service diesel locomotive as direct competition to such models as the ALCO PA and EMD E-unit. Assembly of the 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) unit, which was mounted on an A1A-A1A wheelset, was subcontracted to General Electric because of a lack of space at Fairbanks Morse and Company's Wisconsin plant. GE built the locomotives at its Erie, Pennsylvania facility, thereby giving rise to the name "Erie-built". Fairbanks Morse and Company retained the services of industrial designer Raymond Loewy to create a visually impressive carbody for the Erie-built. The line was only moderately successful. A total of 82 cab and 28 cabless booster units was sold through 1949, when production ended. The Erie-built's successor was manufactured in Beloit and designed from the ground up. The result was the Consolidated line, or "C-liner" (one of the company's best-known products), which debuted in January 1950.

Orders for C-liners were initially received from the New York Central, followed by the Long Island Rail Road, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Milwaukee Road and the New Haven. F-M design locomotives were also produced under license in Canada by the Canadian Locomotive Company. Orders to the CLC were also forthcoming in Canada from the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways. Accounts of mechanical unreliability and poor technical support began to emerge. It became apparent that the 2,400 h.p. Westinghouse generators were prone to failure, and the F-M prime movers suffered from short piston life and proved difficult to maintain. Moreover, railroads were quickly moving away from the cab unit type, and standardizing on road-switcher designs, as offered by the competition in the form of the EMD GP7 or the ALCO RS-3.

By 1952, orders had dried up in the United States and the production run was only 99 units, although they were more popular in Canada, particularly with the CP, and orders continued there until 1955. Several variants were only produced by the Canadian Locomotive Company, and Canadian roads received 66 units. Westinghouse had announced in 1953 that it was leaving the locomotive equipment market, partly due to the F-M generator problems. This made continuing production of the C-liners impractical without a redesign, and since marketplace acceptance was marginal, production was ended.

Fairbanks Morse continued to produce their road-switcher designs, including the Train Master series, but these met limited success in the marketplace. Financial problems resulting from an inter-family feud among the owner weakened the company, and this, combined with stiff competition from EMD products such as the F units, a declining market as the replacement of steam locomotives was at an end, and an expensive excursion into the development of a high-speed passenger train (P12-42), led F-M to exit the railway locomotive market. Fairbanks sold its last locomotive in the US in 1958, and shipped its final unit to Mexico in 1963. The CLC was renamed "Fairbanks-Morse Canada" in 1965, and closed in 1969 after a strike.