Railway Motors
Railway Motors History
Fairmont Railway Motors, first known as the Fairmont Machine Company, started as a small machine shop in the 1900s making things such as single cylinder engines used mainly to pump water, saw wood, etc. A breakthrough for the company occured in the later portion of that decade when a railroad section hand, Fred Mahlman Sr., suggested placing an engine on a railroad handcar. This application had a profound and significant effect on the railroad maintenance industry and put the company on the map. The company was guided by it's first President, Frank Wade, who was also a prominent local businessman and the proprietor of the famed Interlaken Park.
In the 1920’s, the company began producing and selling some units of maintenance-of-way work equipment. This included weed burners, weed mowers, and ballast discers. In 1923, Fairmont Railway Motors, Inc. was officially adopted as the firm name. In 1928, the company purchased the railway motor car business of Mudge and Company of Chicago and moved all tools and equipment to Fairmont. The Chicago properties were sold. Throughout the 1920s and 30s Harold Wade, son of Frank Wade, managed the business as its President.
Howard Starrett took over for a short period before his death in 1939 and he was succeeded by Walter Kasper who ran the company until 1956. During the Second World War the company employed nearly 1 out of every 10 townspeople as it made different parts and railcars for the war effort. In the 1940s they began producing Hy-Rail vehicles that could travel via both rail and road. Richard "Dick" Wade, Frank's grandson, took over in 1956 and would run the company as President until 1987.
In 1963 a line of Hydraulic Hand Tools was introduced, known as Fairmont Tamper. Stockholders approved a merger with Harsco, a diversified enterprise located in Harrisburg, PA, on June 8, 1979. G. Robert Newman became President in 1987 and served until 2007; the current President of Harsco Rail is Scott Jacoby. The company is now known as Harsco Track Technologies and still maintains a presence in Fairmont.
The First Fairmont Railway Motor Car
Fairmont’s Railway Motors, Inc., may not have developed into the company it became if not for a railroad section hand living in Fairmont that was tired of pumping his hand car by hand. This individual, Fred Mahlman Sr., as reported in the February 26, 1941, edition of the Fairmont Daily Sentinel, was employed as a railroad section hand, and he didn’t like “pumping.” He would have to be out in all kinds of weather, put in long hours, and then at the end of the day he would have to “pump” the handcar back to Fairmont. This was a very tiresome proposition.
Mr. Mahlman thought that it would be great to have a motor on his handcar. He speculated that they worked for the automobile, why not for a hand car. He saw an advertisement in a newspaper that the Cushman Company of Lincoln, Nebraska, was manufacturing a four horse power engine to attach to grain binders for cutting grain. He contacted them and received more information.
Shortly thereafter, he found out that the Fairmont Machine Shop was putting out a two horse power upright engine. Consequently, he purchased one, tried it out for several months, and determined that it really didn’t accomplish what he wanted. As a result of this, he contacted the superintendent of the machine shop and asked if they could make one to order, with Mr. Mahlman’s ideas that would in turn fulfill his needs. They did, and although it had more power, additional improvements were still needed. As Mr. Mahlman’s ideas regarding the motor car were evolving, he and the superintendent would take it out evenings and on Sundays in order to test it and to determine potential additional improvements. Finally, they had what they considered a “pretty good motor
car.”
Mr. Mahlman was then asked by the superintendent of the Fairmont Machine Company to write a detailed report about the motor car. In this report, he stated what he could do with the motor car, how many ties it would haul, how many miles per hour it traveled, as well as gas mileage details. Printed copies of this report were then sent to all the railroads.
Within a few weeks, Mr. Mahlman received so many replies that it proved impossible for him to answer them. Therefore, he took his correspondence to the machine shop office and let them handle the replies. Within a couple of years, orders were coming in to the
then little known Fairmont Machine Company so fast that they were unable to manufacture the motors fast enough.
This, at that time, proved to be a driving force in the start of Fairmont Railway Motors, Inc. From that small beginning, which was a result of a tired railroad worker who thought that there must be a better way, an industry developed that could certainly be considered to be the most significant industry in the early history of Fairmont and Martin County.
Had Mr. Mahlman purchased an engine from the Cushman Company in Nebraska, one can only speculate as to how the future of Fairmont Railway Motors, Inc.,and Martin County, may have been affected, as this development undoubtedly had far reaching effects on the economy of this area.
To find out more about this article and Fairmont Railway Motors, Inc., visit the Pioneer
Museum in Fairmont
Motorcar Birth Record Room & Research
The Birth Record Room is where the MCHS stores the documentation and records for many of the rail cars that the factory produced. The records were donated to the MCHS by the Fairmont Branch of Harsco Track Technologies and the renovation of the room was made possible by donations from members of the North American Railcar Operators Association (NARCOA). NARCOA has been very supportive of the MCHS' efforts to preserve these records and the history of Fairmont Railway Motors; to learn more about their group you can visit their website: http://www.narcoa.org/
Rail car enthusiasts who own a Railway Motors Railcar may contact the museum if they would like to inquire about the "birth record" for their specific rail car. The most efficient way to inquire about the "birth record" for a motor car is to email the MCHS at edirectormchs@gmail.com. To locate the record we will need either the Engine Serial Number or the Car Number (which were located on tags that were riveted or glued near the operator's console of the motor car). Please include either or both of these numbers when you contact us; unfortunately we can not locate a record without one of these numbers.
We will get to your request as soon as possible. All items to be mailed will be sent only after receipt of payment. Cost is determined upon completion of research.
