Present-day Harsco Track Technologies, located in Minnesota, is
probably not a name familiar to most engine enthusiasts. But it
traces its history back to a name that almost certainly is:
Fairmont. The company, a subsidiary of Harsco Corp. was formed from
the merger of Fairmont Tamper and Pandrol Jackson Inc. in 1979.
On the following pages you will see postcards sent to us by
Dennis Pollock that show images of a bygone era, when Fairmont was
the manufacturer of engines used in railway maintenance.
According to company history, “The company started as a small
machine shop shortly after the turn of the (last) century. In 1907
the shop began the manufacture of single-cylinder engines, mainly
for farm use to pump water, saw wood and similar jobs. Two years
later, in 1909, it was incorporated as Fairmont Machine Co. That
same year Fairmont engines were first applied to railway hand or
pump cars, and marked their entrance into the railroad field. This
enabled the workmen to ride to and from the job, and save their
energy for actual productive work.
“Business grew throughout the teens and consisted mainly of
supplying engines for mounting on the pump cars already in use. In
1913 the city of Duluth (Minn.) offered the company an attractive
proposition to move the factory and general offices to their city.
However, a committee of Fairmont citizens pledged assistance to the
company, and the directors decided to remain in Fairmont. In 1915
the company name was changed to Fairmont Gas Engine & Railway
Motor Car Co.”
Because of its development in railway motorcar production in the
early 1920s, the company’s name was again changed in 1923 to
Fairmont Railway Motors Inc. The Canadian branch, Fairmont Railway
Motors Ltd. was formed in 1929 and the attention from engine
production to railway maintenance production shifted from there,
although a service instructions and parts list for the RK-B
2-cylinder engine from 1972 shows engine manufacture continued
through the 1970s.
Fairmont Railway Motors appears only briefly in C.H. Wendel’s
American Gasoline Engines Since 1872. Wendel writes: “Many
thousands of these 2-cycle engines carried railroad section gangs
down the rails. Almost anyone can recall the distinctive sound of
railway motorcars headed down the tracks – with the vast majority
being powered by a Fairmont engine. Today’s old engine collectors
count these among the unique designs of yesteryear. Certain
Fairmont designs were created by 1909 under the direction of Horace
E. Woolery. He later left Fairmont to form Woolery Engineering Co.”
Pictured in Wendel’s book is a 4 HP, produced in 1938.
The MM9 cart on features the 4 HP engine. With this reversible
engine, the MM9 could travel up to 25 MPH in either direction
without the need to turn the car around. The car was equipped with
belt drive and a gear-type speed reducer on the rear axle.
The engine at the top of page 20 is a 6 to 13 HP Model QBA
introduced in 1925. According to the postcard, this heavy-duty
engine used ball bearings on the crankshaft and featured a
lever-adjusted sliding base that acted as a belt-tightener
clutch.
Fairmont engines were water- or, rather, steam-cooled. Engine
heat boiled the water releasing steam, which rose into a condenser
area where it cooled and changed back into water to repeat the
process. The water jacket of Fairmont engines was designed to be
freeze-proof, so no antifreeze was used. In fact, the company
advertised it would replace any properly-filled water jacket
cracked from freezing. More than 114,000 Fairmont engines were
produced in the Fairmont plant.
One website
(http://motorcar.winkworth.us/engines/engines_index.htm) agrees
with Wendel in stating Fairmont began making engines as early as
1909. The site claims the engines can be divided into three basic
groups: Plain bearing (P series); ball bearing (Q and OD series)
and roller bearing (R series).
Internet links
http://narcoa.org
www.harscotrack.com
www.railspeeders.com
www.brownrr.com/catalog/index.php (parts)
Recommended by most people and contains an extensive list of
serial numbers with corresponding build years from the 1940s
through the 1980s:
http://motorcar.winkworth.us/engines/engines_index.htm
Motorcar Yahoo group:
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/RailroadMotorcarMaintenence
Manuals:
http://motorcar.winkworth.us/manuals/man_engines.htm
Near as can be told from research, Fairmont started in 1909 with
a set of horizontal and vertical stationary/portable engines in 2,
4, 6 and 10 HP. Evidently, around 1915 when the company’s name was
changed from Fairmont Machine Co. to Fairmont Gas Engine &
Railway Motor Car Co., the company was still shipping these
engines. However, within the following two years, P series engines
were being shipped and in 1920, catalogs show this series with
engines such as a PH-4 (4 HP). A Model PN is in a bulletin dated to
the 1930s and 1940s.
Bulletins owned by Doug Heinmuller, Lunenburg, Vt., give even
more depth to Fairmont’s engine manufacture. According to those, in
1913, there were Model G, GB (both 5 HP) and H engines; in 1917
there was a Model QN (6 HP); in 1928 there were Model K and KM
(both 10-13 HP) and QNF (6 HP) engines; and in 1919 there was a
Model RNF-9 (8 HP).
The QBA engine was introduced in 1925, but manufacture of Q
series engines continuted through the 1960s. The OD series began
and ended around the same time. R series engines were included in a
1940s bulletin and a 1950 catalog.
An instruction book for 4 HP Model PH and 6 HP Model QH engines
states that if for some reason the nameplate is missing from your
engine, the engine number can be found stamped on the edge of the
fiber ring of the timer and on the top of the crankcase. (You will
need to scrape off the paint to see the latter one.) If you know
the serial number of your engine, most people have had very good
luck contacting Harsco Track Technologies to identify the year it
was manufactured. However, if you do not have the serial number,
they cannot help you. Contact the company at: (803) 822-9160;
www.harscotrack.com
For photos of various examples of Fairmont engines, visit
www.GasEngineMagazine.com
Ken Ley, former Canadian Fairmont plant manager invites anyone
with a Canadian-built engine to contact him for the build
information, which he managed to save from the dumpster when the
plant closed. Contact him at: (705) 646-1492;
ken.ley@sympatico.ca
Thanks
John and Andrew Mackey, Steve Gray,
Skip Landis and Ray Cordoza
North American Railcar Operators Assn.
Doug Heinmuller, (802) 892-6144
Carey Boney, careyboney@earthlink.net
David Sundry, dsundry98@aol.com
Dave Thornton, dave.thornton@sympatico.ca
Wayne Brummond and Harsco Track Technologies
Chuck Woycke, 11521 Bank Road, Cincinatti, OH 45251-4413;
vwoycke@fuse.net
John Mandell, P.O. Box 202497, Austin, TX 78720;
jmandell@pointech.com
Dennis Pollock, 705 Indiania S.E., Albuquerque, NM 87108;
dapol@cybermesa.com
Doug Cummins, 1146 W. 27th St., Independence, MO 64052-3222;
doodlebug1@netscape.com
Martin County Historical Society, 304 E. Blue Earth Ave.,
Fairmont, MN 56031-2865; (507) 235-5178; lennymch@frontiernet.net •
www.co.martin.mn.us/mchs/
