Santa Fe Train Masters...C&NW T.M.s.....Chessie System Train Masters????? Makes you wonder what these people are on! FM would have loved to get all that additional business, but it wasn't gonna happen. Reason? Too high a cost per horsepower/ high engine operating expense in the R.R. application/ most important...FM corporate instability from 1955 onward. In the '50s, the six axle Diesel scene was viewed in a much more limited light than today. Back then, you could buy an SD7; which had all the advantages of a Shay, and none of the disadvantages! The first SD7 was built in May, 1951, and from that point on, the TM was dead in the water...and it wasn't even fully designed yet!
The Illinois Central was poised to order 75 Train Masters, but it was that corporate instablility that made them reconsider. It probably would have only kept FM afloat for a few more years.
A magazine once pictured FM artwork of what they would have looked like, but I've never been able to find it. It think the photo might have departed with my Extra 2200 South collection years ago.
Too bad, TM's in IC black and white would have been magnificent.
Rusty
