Gary:

Personally, I have seen almost no pictures, color or otherwise, of SOU TrainMasters in service on road freights. Shots of them in engine terminals are more common.  

I was recently looking through scans of slides coming to the SRHA Archives from the late J. David Ingles estate and was surprised to find this interesting photo from December 1956 of a freight heading north on the CNO&TP at Boyce, Tenn. It is what I have heard called a “CNO&TP sandwich”, where SOU replaced two B-units with one or two TrainMasters. I also understand that once the SD24s arrived, SOU ran a couple TrainMasters between two SD24s on through freights. 

This doesn’t really answer your questions; I just thought the photo was cool. I’d also be interested to hear what answers others on this list can offer to your questions.

—Bill

On Nov 9, 2021, at 15:26, Gary Bechdol <garyeb1947@...> wrote:

Gentle beings

I recently acquired a Division Point SRR FM H24-66 Train Master model with the correct low end platforms.  The Withers Diesel book indicates that SRR acquired them to run between EMD F-units on the CNO&TP.  Am I correct in assuming that this was an early experiment in fuel saving?  Two 2400 hp Train Masters could replace three 1500 hp F b units.

Further questions:  On what other assignments were these units used?  Did they routinely operate as single units or in multiple with each other?  Did they stray off the CNO&TP to Atlanta, Birmingham, or Asheville?

Thanks in advance.

Gary Bechdol
Stone Mountain, GA