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The FM Train Master, The H24-66

Of all the locomotive models Fairbanks Morse produced during its short stint in the market the Train Master was by far its most revolutionary and best remembered. Officially cataloged by the builder as its H24-66 the FM Train Master was a serious puller that was well built, reliable, and of course powerful. Unfortunately, its undoing was simply that it was nearly a decade ahead of its time as railroads had yet to realize the benefits of powerful, six-axle locomotives that offered high tractive effort. Had things been different the Train Master may have been the SD40-2 of its day and propelled Fairbanks Morse as a major locomotive builder. Today, there is one H24-66 although it was built by FM's Canadian Locomotive Works as Canadian Pacific #8905. The locomotive is currently on display at the Canadian Railway Museum in Saint-Constant, Quebec.

The FM Train Master (or TM for short) began production in April, 1953 and proved itself as the most "successful" locomotive on the market at the time, even if railroads didn't realize it. The H24-66 utilized Fairbanks Morse 2-cycle 38D8 1/8 opposed piston prime mover that could produce a hefty 2,400 horsepower using a C-C truck setup (the model was equipped with Tri-Mount trucks). The TM offered the most horsepower of any locomotive in its class at that time and despite its size it could also out accelerate any comparable locomotive, even making it ideal in some types of passenger service. The locomotive offered unparalleled tractive effort; 79,500 pounds starting and even better 82,500 pounds continuous! As such it had incredible acceleration and could pull just about anything asked of it.

Unfortunately, when the FM Train Master debuted in the early 1950s railroads had yet to grasp diesel locomotives as a high horsepower commodity and many saw the H24-66 as too powerful for their needs, not to mention the complicated maintenance issues accompanying Fairbanks Morse odd opposed piston prime movers. In the end when production had ended on the Train Master in June, 1957 just 127 had been built for a handful of Class I railroads; the Jersey Central (13), Lackawanna (12), Pennsylvania (9), Reading (17), Southern Pacific (14), Southern Railway (5), Virginian (25), Canadian Pacific (1), and Wabash (6). Additionally, Canadian Pacific purchased another 20 units from FM's Canadian Locomotive Works. Finally, FM built four demonstrators; TM-1 and TM-2 went to the Wabash while the Southern picked up TM-3 and TM-4.

By the time the Train Master was released in 1953 Fairbanks Morse had ended Raymond Loewy's recommendations in styling its road switchers. However, it did continue to lean on some of his ideas giving the TM a clean look and soft, beveled edges (at 66 feet it was basically an elongated version of its smaller four axle road switchers). Perhaps the only truly negative aspect of the Train Master was its weight; at just over 194 tons it was quite heavy and was hard on the track structure.

Despite the Train Master's weight issues and complicated prime mover design many of the railroads that purchased it found that the model lived up to FM's hype. The locomotive took a beating on lines like the Reading and Virginian where it was used in heavy coal drag service. On the other hand, the Southern Pacific liked theirs so well, particularly its fast acceleration that after newer models replaced the TMs in freight service the railroad used them in commuter operations well into the 1970s. It should be noted that while the FM Train Master only saw cool sales numbers 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.

For a total production roster of FM Train Masters please click here. Also, for technical data of the locomotive please click here. Lastly, for more information about the FM H24-66 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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