This booklet is from Larry Berger's collection.
In the year and a half since the introduction of the Fairbanks-Morse Train Master to America's railroads, the name, already a familiar railroad term, has become a symbol for locomotive power and versatility.
To introduce this locomotive, a book -- TM -- listed the salient design features which promised to make the Train Master outstandingly useful in all classes of train service. Now -- 18 months later -- how has the Train Master performed? What is its record of actual use on the twin steel rails of America's "high iron"?
The hardest use -- the most relentless sequence of assignments -- the most severe test of motive power falls on the demonstrator locomotive. And so it was with the Train Master. For 170,000 punishing miles, the TM demonstrators took on the "tough" jobs for the major railroads across the nation.
Two Train Masters replaced conventional three-unit 4500/4800 hp road freight locomotives in manifest freight service -- and topped existing tonnage ratings by 11%.
Single Train Masters, in many cases, took over assignments customarily requiring two conventional 4 axle 1500/1600 hp units.
Individual Train Master units replaced all types of steam locomotives from 4-6-2 in fast passenger service to 4-10-2 in manifest freight duty -- even equalled an eight-drivered articulated giant in heavy mountain helper service!
Train Masters hauled ore in Minnesota, humped in Eastern yards, speeded symbol freights across the great plains, roared through Western mountain passes on test after test.
The question: Could this locomotive perform as promised?
The answer: In every case, the Train Master equalled or exceeded the promised theoretical performance figures.
These demonstrations were valuable; they tested the maximum performance abilities and established the universal usefulness of the locomotive. The question remained whether this high capacity motive power unit could be utilized in day-in, day-out railroad service more intensively than conventional units of less capacity.
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The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the first railroad to buy Train Masters, had made a study to determine motive power requirements for the final stage of their dieselization. The study showed they needed 4 conventional road passenger units in suburban service and 10 conventional 1500-1600 horsepower units of other types for road freight duty and some suburban work. However, the potentialities of the newly introduced Train Master caused the alert Lackawanna management to stop and take a second look. As a results, instead of 14 units as originally contemplated, the Lackawanna purchased 10 Train Masters to fill out these assignments. This move was certainly contrary to general practice. A railroad owning over 200 diesel units doesn't normally wind up buying 10 units of a different type as its final diesel locomotive purchase, but the Lackawanna did -- and not only saved 9% of the initial cost, but eliminated 4 units from its maintenance and servicing costs. The Lackawanna has since proved that the flexibility of the 10 unit Train Master pool is never less than, and often exceeds, that which could be expected of the 14 units of several types originally considered. Since the Train Masters are not restricted to one class of service because of design or capacity limitation, purchase of these high horsepower, high utilization locomotives was the most economical and efficient way to finish the Lackawanna dieselization. It was the promise of this result that guided the selection of the Train Master. |
ON THE DELAWARE-LACKAWANN'
Two 2400-horsepower Fairbanks-Morse Train Master locomotive units pull the symbol freight HB-9 through the Delaware Water Gap and along the Route of the Phoebe Snow on the Lackawanna's daily schedule between Hoboken and Buffalo.
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The Lackawanna uses a two unit 4800 horsepower Train Master combination for powering its symbol freights between Scranton and Hoboken -- the toughest part of the Lackawanna system. In this service, the two-unit Train Masters handle the same work load as any other three unit freight locomotive. Their 30% greater transmission capacity provides an extra reserve when needed for handling heavier trains -- yet with only two units to service and maintain instead of three. From the Pocono Summit, their dynamic brake -- most powerful on the Lackawanna by 33%, speeds controlled descents, helps move traffic faster in both directions. Some of the suburban Train Masters augment this service to help move the heavy weekend freight traffic flowing into the busy New York port area. In a typical month ten Train Master units ran 61,000 unit miles, 60% of which was accounted for in this heavy mountain freight service. |
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The Lackawanna Train Masters work out of Hoboken and average 187 miles a day in this highly congested area. The Lackawanna has taken advantage of the two-way operating visibility of these hood type locomotives and operates the units in both directions without turning them around.
All the Train Masters are maintained at Scranton, 134 miles away, but they are not run back light for monthly inspections. Instead, suburban units are exchanged with their identical twins in passenger or freight service, and work their way west to Scranton as head end power on a passenger train, or as half of a two unit Train Master road freight locomotive.
The Train Master group regularly furnishes power for the Scrantonian and Merchants Limited between Scranton and Hoboken, as well as local passenger runs on branch lines of the Morris and Essex Division. The Train Masters handle the heavier passenger pool duties in stride, and though geared for a maximum speed of 65 mph have been called out on one occasion for head end power on the Lackawanna's famed name train, the Phoebe Snow.
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Tough grades out of Scranton call for helper service in both directions. The heavy, powerful Train Masters have proved ideal for pushers and receive this duty regularly on a first-in, first-out basis during the layover at Scranton between their routine road assignments. The Train Masters are used on occasion for yard engine duty, too, even though all have regular daily road locomotive assignments. |