All-
Most certainly the CB&Q’s experience with the 9904-9908 Shovelnoses and E5 locomotives in mainline experience and the EMD switchers paved the way for easier acceptance of the FT.
But if the FT had not been developed prior to WWII (or there were problems like ALCO had with their first prime movers) would there have been additional CB&Q steam locomotives?
I would say most certainly. As I’ve stated before, the late Joe Douda mentioned to me that he had seen documents or heard from people on the railroad that the next batch of O5 Northerns would be equipped with M4 tenders. While they are not greatly larger than the regular O5 tenders, they had more water capacity which is more of a limiting factor than coal. Joe also stated that there were proposals to rebuild the M1 and M2 2-10-2s into modern Colorado 2-10-4s……
Also, as late as August of 1941 there were proposals for a new locomotive type from one of the builders which would have been VERY interesting….but I want to leave that for a future Zephyr or Bulletin article on “What Might Have Been” equipment.
Charlie Vlk