Fairmont Gas Engine & Railway Motor Car Company
In the early 1900s, a small local machine shop was created in Fairmont, Minnesota, to carry out blacksmithing and related metalworking services.
In 1907 it started to manufacture single-cylinder engines to power well pumps & wood saws for local farms.
In 1909 it was incorporated and became the Fairmont Machine Company and, encouraged by Fred Mahlman Sr, a local railroad section hand, it started to convert railway hand/pump "cars" into engine powered vehicles using its own design of engines.
Also in 1909, engineer & entrepreneur Frank E. Wade (1862-1919) took over the operations of the company and was made its president. The company continued to expand its range of products to include the "Fairmont" gasoline engines, railway motor cars, and many other railway appliances. At that time, it supplied most of the railroads in the US as well as many foreign markets.
In 1915, the company changed its name to Fairmont Gas Engine and Railway Motor Car Company, and in 1919 its name was again changed to Fairmont Railway Motors, Inc.
In 1928 the company acquired Mudge and Company, a Chicago based railroad motor car business and that same year created a Canadian subsidiary, Fairmont Railway Motors Ltd in suburban Toronto.
In the 1940s, Fairmont developed Hy-Rail vehicles which could operate on rail or road and the system could be added to existing passenger cars, pickup-trucks or vehicle-mounted cranes.
In 1955, Fairmont bought the railcar interests of Fairbanks-Morse. Interestingly, Frank E. Wade was once a salesman for Fairbanks-Morse, and was responsible for improving their gasoline engines and in 1899 was the lead salesman in that area.
In the 1960s a range of lightweight hydraulic tools was introduced, designed to be mainly used in construction & maintenance of electrical power transmission routes and for tree trimming. A hydraulic motor was also added to the range at the same time and resulted in the creation of a new business division, Fairmont Hydraulics.
In 1979, Fairmont merged with Harsco, a diversified engineering business based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and became part of Harsco Track Technologies, which in turn became Harsco Rail in 2009.