Erie-builts and H20-44s: Fairbanks-Morse's 2000-Horsepower Pioneers

This is the third book in Withers Publishing series covering opposed-piston-powered locomotives. During the development of the 1,000-horsepower switcher, F-M officials knew that the company would have to produce a road cab unit if it were going to make it in the locomotive business. F-M engineers designed a road locomotive around a car body styled by industrial designer Raymond Loewy.

Since F-M did not have the shop capacity to build a large locomotive itself, it contracted that work to General Electric, which produced the units at its Erie, Pa., plant, hence the name Erie-built. GE went on to build 111 of the distinctive locomotives for the Union Pacific, Santa Fe, Milwaukee Road, Kansas City Southern, New York Central, and Pennsylvania Railroads.

With a 1,000-horsepower switcher and a 2,000-horsepower road cab unit, F-M wanted to enter the road-switcher market. During 1946, the company's engineering team designed a 2,000-horsepower end-cab unit for its first road switcher, named the Heavy Duty unit. Few railroads saw the H20-44s potential-moving tonnage at a higher speed than could a typical 1,500- and 1,600-horsepower four-axle road switcher of the era.

In all, 96 H20-44s were sold to five customers. Withers Publishing, softcover, 8.5 x 11 x .25 in., 92 pages (22 pages in color), 167 photographs (40 in color); locomotive diagrams.