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The FM Baby Train Master, The H16-66

The FM Baby Train Master, cataloged by the builder as its H16-66 model road switcher, was the first of its six-axle line released in the very early 1950s. Unfortunately, the "Baby Train Master" sold rather poorly although its bigger cousin the H24-66 "Train Master" fared relatively better. Ultimately, just four railroads and one industry purchased the H16-66 with fewer than 60 built over a seven year span. The H16-66 gained its unique name from railfans which coined the term because the model was overall smaller and produced less horsepower than the larger and more powerful H24-66 (Fairbanks Morse itself never used the "Baby Train Master" term to describe the H16-66). Today, there is just one H16-66 known to exist, former Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) #721001 although it is currently under Canadian ownership and stored in Ogden, Quebec by the Canadian Pacific.

The FM Baby Train Master began production in January, 1951 with its first orders taken from the Chicago & North Western Railway, a regular buyer of Fairbanks Morse locomotives. The C&NW would ultimately come to own the most H16-66s, which was only slightly different from the H16-44 road switcher in that it featured C-C trucks, thus allowing for better tractive effort and a better distribution of weight for work on light branch lines. While most roads shied away from the Baby Train Master the C&NW like it so much that they purchased 45 examples between 1951 and 1956 (interestingly, though, the railroad never purchased the more powerful H24-66).

The H16-66 could produce 1,600 horsepower utilizing Fairbanks Morse 2-cycle 38D8 1/8 opposed piston prime mover. Through 1953 FM continued to employ Raymond Loewy-inspired carbody recommendations on the H16-66 most of which were simply cosmetic in nature. However, after that time the company scrapped the recommendations in an effort to reduce manufacturing costs. While FM's four-axle road switchers featured AAR Type B trucks its six axle designs like the Baby Train Master used Baldwin-designed Commonwealth trucks. During later years the company switched to Tri-Mount trucks. FM's classification system for its diesels somewhat followed Baldwin's designation. In regards to the H16-66; the “H” stood for Hood unit, “16” was for 1,600 horsepower, and each 6 meant six axles and six traction motors.

It should be noted that while the H16-66 sold poorly it is not necessarily because Fairbanks Morse's models in general were unreliable, as was usually the case with Alco (early on anyway) and particularly Baldwin. Reliability with FM's diesel locomotives has often been questioned but I believe the issue was mostly due to the fact that FM's opposed-piston prime mover was difficult to maintain and far different from the standard designs being offered by the other builders. For instance, in regards to the Train Master, it has been noted by John Kirkland in his book The Diesel Builders Volume 1 that the locomotives performed admirably for more than 20 years on the Southern Pacific due to a maintenance team that understood the model, despite taking a daily beating in freight service.

The one major selling point for the FM Baby Train Master was its very high tractive effort offering just under 80,000 pounds of starting effort. This made the locomotive an extremely capable puller although its extra weight of 187.5 tons compared to models being offered by EMD (SD7) and Alco (RSD4) at the time also hurt its sales potential. Overall the H16-66 carried a length of 66 feet, which was quite a bit longer than Alco's and EMD's models, and about 12 feet longer than the four axle H16-44. For a total production roster of FM Baby Train Masters please click here. Lastly, for more information about the FM H16-66 and all of the builder's road switcher models please refer to the chart below.

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Fairbanks Morse Road Switchers

Model Type	Units Built	Date Built	Horsepower
H15-44	35	1947-1949	1,500
H16-44	296	1950-1963	1,600
H16-66 (Baby Train Master)	59	1951-1958	1,600
H20-44	96	1947-1954	2,000
H24-66 (Train Master)	127	1953-1957	2,400

For more information on Fairbanks-Morse locomotives consider Mike Schafer’s Vintage Diesel Locomotives which looks at virtually all of the classic builders and models from Alco PAs to early EMD Geeps. If you’re interested in classic FMs, or diesels in general, this book gives an excellent general history of both.

You may also want to consider the book Evolution of the American Diesel Locomotive by author J. Parker Lamb. As the title implies the book looks at the history and development of the diesel locomotives, covering 200 pages, from its earliest beginnings to the newest designs and models operated today. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing either (or both) of these books please visit the links below which will take you to ordering information through Amazon.com, the trusted online shopping network.

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