Pilots and Footboards on interurban Freight Locomotives

[daveklepper]

All CNS&M freight locomotives carried footboards and not pilots.  Oregon Electric 50 and 51 had pilots.  (I assume other OE freight power also had pilots.)  The North Shore cut and bent the pilots to become supports for the footboards.

Others can weigh in on which lines used which.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

South Shore's steeplecabs and R motors all had footboards.  The Joes had pilots.

[daveklepper]

and the CA&E and CRT?

[rcdrye]

CNS&M 200 series box motors used in freight service had passenger-style pilots.  CA&E had footboards on its GE and B-W engines, radial footboards on the ex-Oklahoma RR 4005-4006, and passenger-style pilots or footboards (and sometimes snowplows) on its box motors. NWE/CRT/CTA S-104 and S-105 had footboards.

Pacific Electric's  (and other SP electric subsidiaries') locomotives had footboards with pilots behind them.  PE's box motors had a mix of footboards and passenger-style pilots, with footboards becoming more common in the later years.  Sacramento Northern had footboards both with and without a center pilot section.

Oshawa Railway in Ontario had hybrid pilot footboards (at least on 300, which was originally intended for Cuba). The Atlantic Shore Line had 1890s style wooden pilots with footboards on the front edge right up to the end of operations in 1949.

CRT, CNS&M and CA&E had different strategies for dealing with high-level platforms.  CRT's motors were built with narrow frames so light movements didn't require using the gauntlets, but CRT also had gauntlets in place wherever freight equipment operated.  CNS&M had normal width freight motors with gauntlets at high-level platforms (Howard-Dempster, the 1930s line relocation in Winnetka).  CA&E had flaps on high level platforms from Laramie (52nd Ave) to Bellwood, and crews put one man up front and one man on th rear with hooks to flip back 2x10's that were hinged to the front edge of the platforms.

[KCSfan]

Illinois Terminal Class B freight motors had footboards. The Class C motors had slotted steel pilots and the Class D's had solid steel pilots.

Mark

[gbrewer]

Here is how the CA&E did it. Much more at Chicago, Aurora & Elgin

Glen Brewer

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[rcdrye]

gbrewer

Here is how the CA&E did it

I took a look at several books on the CA&E in the last few days.  GE 44-ton 2001 and 2002 were delivered with the hybrid pilot/footboard arrangement in Glen's picture.  At some point at least one end of one of them had footboards only (further research required).  Baldwin-Westinghouse 3003-3004 were built with ends for radial couplers, but had fixed couplers bolted at the center of the radial slot - and footboards.

Some of CA&E's box motors operated without footboards or pilots at all during some periods.  Photos show quite a few different configurations.