Please don't hurt me BUT to have one more Trainmaster extant (DL&W too!) and one less Reading T-1 would have been alright with me.

http://gbcelrr.googlepages.com/01x1172strbalto1.jpg

Joshua

IIRC that was a PRR "baby trainmaster" on the far side of the two RDG locos, not the true thing. Somewhere I have a photo taken on the far side.

Sorry Ron, but I am pretty sure those are two ex EL trainmasters in early black and yellow scheme. The author of the website where that photo was taken from got numberboards from the scrapyard.

http://gbcelrr.googlepages.com/e-lpage4

Regards,

Joshua

Sorry about that. When I visited I only saw the PRR unit and was not aware of the Erie ones, which may have been gone already, or perhaps out of my sightline.

Did the T-1's go to Streigel directly from Reading ownership? It's a bittersweet story regarding the neglected opportunity to purchase an E-L Trainmaster. After the whole string of them went off to scrap, a single TM and PA remained in Hornell for a long time. Somebody might have grabbed at that last chance...but... In all likelihood, Ed Streigel would have gladly sold at least one of the TM's to an interested party.

It is still a miracle that four T1's remain intact to this day.

Yes they went directly to Striegel. I remember seeing a picture of them dead in tow on a B&O freight in a period issue of Trains. The caption said that was where they were headed.

I remember seeing and hearing trainmasters. I have seen both of these T-1s in steam since this photo was taken and ridden more than a thousand miles behind 2101. Sorry Joshua but I would prefer 30 T-1s preserved and no trainmasters. Each to his own.

John Bohon

I'm sorry if I sound ignorant, but being new to railway preservation, I am in the dark. What is a "trainmaster"?
Scott

Trainmasters are 6 wheel truck diesels built by Fairbanks Morse using opposed piston diesel engines similar to engines used in marine service. They were the largest and probably the most powerful diesels of their day (approximately 1955) but did not sell well. Their oposed piston prime movers were difficult to maintain inside a locomotive carbody. FM also built smaller units dubbed baby trainmasters as well as switchers. FM did not stay in the locomotive bussiness very long. Personally I am not aware of any surviving trainmasters but I really do not keep up with diesel preservation. Spencer shops has a FM switcher and a friend of mine who has run the locomotive said if he had to do it full time he would find a job driving a truck.

I am sure others can fill in the details I have missed and correct any mistakes in what I have written.

John Bohon

John,

There is a surviving Trainmaster, but you'll soon need a passport to go see it.
Canadian Pacific did save one, and it can be found at Exporail at Delson, QC outside Montreal. As far as I know she is not operational, but at least she is intact.

I ran H12-44 1860 and its sister 1852 on a somewhat regular basis during the First Gulf War in 1990-91 at Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point. Once you got used to the throttle/reverser combo, I found those locos to be quite user friendly, except when the rail ops folks would give you too much to haul - 1200 hp vs 1500 on up hp on the other locos at MOTSU (GP7L, GP10, EMD MRS1).
Had to go over to Ft Bragg to pick up a deuce and a half truck once, I'd take any of the locos over that!

That's correct. The last intact Trainmaster is at Delson, in immaculate condition, older CPR paint scheme, but sandwiched in a line of other locomotives and at a difficult angle to photograph - not that I'm complaining! The only other H24-66 relic I can think of is the ex-Wabash slug, now owned by the Reading T&HS folks. This is a set of trucks and chassis, but nothing above that. The idea is, I believe, to eventually rebuild a carbody to replicate a TM in the Reading livery.

One would have thought a CNJ, Erie-Lackawanna, or at the least an Espee Trainmaster would have been preserved, as they were the last around in the USA. Unfortunately, as trade-in's they were condemned under contractual agreements, as were the last of the ALCO PA's from Santa Fe and E-L.

CPR also saved the biggest distribution of heavier Fairbanks Morse power, including the last extant C-Liners, and at least one H16-44 ("Toast Masters"). There is a H16-66 remaining somewhere in the US, frequently misidentified as another Trainmaster.

In Mexico, there remain several examples of H16-44 power. One of my Powerball projects would be recovery of the H16-44 shell mounted above the tracks on a mountainside, as an advertisement, and get it rebuilt as a functional locomotive.

Does Doyle read these notices?

The "Trains" magazine article on the last trip of the last U.S. Trainmaster, on the N&W, mentioned that part of the reason for retirement was because the Diesel engine could be sold for maritime use. The frame and trucks, with extra weight added, became a "brake sled" for extra braking power in a hump yard.

I was the Safety Chairman on that last "Trainmaster" trip, and managed to snag some cab time on 173. VMT has the "other unit" from that trip, Bicentennial SD-45 #1776, as well as a "Trainmaster" slug and it's partner in hump service, an Alco C630.

Thanks Gary

I was about to list our Trainmaster Slug that's in Roanoke VA. Right now I don't believe it's in or on the Museum Grounds but in storage off site in the NS Yards.

Attached are two Pictures of the Ex-VGN Trainmaster - Now Slug.





The N&W-NS had a good size group of these slugs but have since been scraped recently with this one survivor going to the VMofT. (Recently pointed out more of these might be floating around out there)... (I guess right now this is the only one I know of committed to a museum?).