Train master?

Question

Train master?

Answer 1

Fairbanks Morse's locomotive, the "Trainmaster," was designated an H-44-66. I can't remember what years they were built, but they used opposed piston prime movers originally designed for submarines. They were the most powerful engines of their day, though very noisy, dirty, and loud. There is one Trainmaster left in existence -- an ex-Canadian Pacific unit. The name of the museum escapes me, but it's stored indoors and has a pretty sharp paint job on it.

Answer 2

Made by Fairbanks Morse. One awesome looking locomotive!

The Rat

Answer 3

management job oversee the conductors on the trains.

Answer 4

hoghead is the closest to nailing this one. Trainmasters are on the lower end of management and are responsible for the conductors on a certain territory, they handle complaints or other issues with customers. Yardmasters are the ones that mainly handle building, and preparing trains for leaving. And at NS we have a crewcall center down in atlanta that is responsible for calling crews for the trains when yardmasters say they are ready to go.

Trainmasters also have the reputation for hiding in the bushes and doing rule checks at 2am in the morning, then busting out of the trees and writing you up for any small rule infractions. The majority of them at NS make about as much as a 1st year conductor, and have a miserable time depending on how much of a jerk their supervisor is. They can be called in on days off, called off of their vacation etc. non union of course.

Answer 5

Middle management personnel, they are the ones making all the small decisions on a RR, what time to run a train, which cars go on which trains, keeping crews in position and rested, etc. Lots of detail type work, they do efficiency testing and are usually the first on a scene of an incident or derailment. They are good at being scarce when you have a question and often are involved in discipline so they are not very popular on some RRs LOL

Answer 6

All of the above with one or two additions.

Trainmaster's are also the liaison between shippers and the carrier, ensuring the customers are getting the service they need from the local freight and road switchers that service their industries.

As for the FM Train Master locos, they were really a quite different beast, at least as far as prime movers go.  Theirs had opposing pistons within the block.  I've never been able to find out how these critters worked, though.