I am now in St Johnsbury VT home of Fairbanks Morse who made scales and locomotives and wanted to know more about the locomotive division and where they wer made? There is no evidence of a loco factory here.
Janesville, Wis.
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
Brian Schmidt Janesville, Wis.
highball2I am now in St Johnsbury VT home of Fairbanks Morse who made scales and locomotives and wanted to know more about the locomotive division
By the time FM decided to try the OP engine in rail equipment, the 'merged' company had long since moved to Wisconsin -- St. Johnsbury is merely where Fairbanks originally set up the scale business in the early 1820s, over a century earlier.
What interests me is that I don't know the exact address of the locomotive plant. Railfans often use 'La Grange' as metonymy for EMD and 'Schenectady' for Alco, but I believe it was FM's corporate presence that was in Beloit... not necessarily the new facility they had to open to be able to stop needing to build most of the locomotive with a competitor in Erie. I presume Brian Schmidt wouldn't have said 'Janesville' without knowing something. (I had always thought the plant was in Beloit, but never actually checked the address...)
Beloit and Janesville are about 20 minutes apart by car, 40 minutes by express bus. Presumably the locomotive plant was not built close to Beloit city itself, so we need to see something like tax-roll data...
Hello, highball2 !
I Will start you off with this linked site: https://www.pinterest.com/craiggarver/fairbanks-morse-locomotives/
Ok, it is Pinterest, but there is a pleatheora of F-M Photos and they represent many production types...Some are even in color!
Here is a photo montage of various F-M Types, Engines and of the Beloit plant as well: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffhp&q=Fairbanks-Morse+Locomotive+plant%2FBeloit%2C+Wi%3F&atb=v228-5&iax=images&ia=images
You can also search in Wikipedia as well: SEARCH: "Fairbanks-Morse Locomotives on Wikipedia" That brings up at least 10 titles for the requested reference. Hope this will help!
Love the SP Trainmaster in shiny new paint!
I've always thought that FM's locomotives were assembled in Beloit. Their plant site there is very large with multiple buildings that are each big enough to house multiple locomotives at once, and even today the plant site still has rail access.
I'm thinking of the site between Park Ave and the Rock River in central Beloit.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
FM still has a presence in Beloit, I've driven by the buildings on WI 81 several times...........
Randy Vos
"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings
"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV
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