diesel-electric freight locomotive in the market; although the Alco RS-1 had been in production for four years, it was not competitive with the horsepower capability of the FT and the greater versatility of roadswitcher type units had yet to be fully appreciated. Alco and Baldwin were also in the process of developing their own “covered wagons,” and the introduction of the 1500 horse- power Alco RS-2 roadswitcher in Octo- ber 1946 would accelerate the trend to- ward “hood” type locomotives. The FM “Erie Builts” were assem-
bled by GE in Erie, Penn., from 1945 to 1949 and used GE electrical equip- ment. FM’s initial dependence on GE and Westinghouse for rotating electri- cal equipment put them in the inconve- nient position of having to buy essen- tial major components from suppliers who had much closer business relation- ships with two of their main competi- tors. But the “Eries” were impressive in many ways and demonstrated FM’s po- tential to be a powerful competitor in the diesel locomotive market. With a single 2000 horsepower ten cylinder OP engine, they could match the horse- power rating of the two 12-567 engines of the EMD EA-7 in a smaller and lighter carbody. Fairbanks Morse introduced their
own roadswitcher line in 1947, in a patented carbody styled by noted in- dustrial designer Raymond Loewy. The Loewy styling prevailed on the FM roadswitchers until 1954 when a sim- plified and more cost effective alterna- tive was introduced. As an interesting point of obscure history, a patent for the Loewy styling applied to what would have been an H20-66 locomotive was assigned to Fritz Paul Grutzner with an application date of October 5, 1946, the same as the patents assigned to Raymond Loewy. In 1950 FM produced the first of the “Consolidation” line of “covered wagon” style locomotives, a family of designs that was heavily influenced by the sev- eral years of competing with EMD. The “C-Liners” were developed around the
The C-Liner was Fairbanks Morse’s effort to compete with the EMD F-units using a locomotive designed for mass production by employing an assortment of standardized sub-assemblies. This crowded ad for C-Liners tries to explain the many variations of the locomotive that could be assembled as single units and multiples by using the different configurations of the OP engine matched to the available gear ratios for passenger and freight service. AUTHOR’S COLLECTION
50 DECEMBER 2011 •
RAILFAN.COM
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