I'm looking to find out why some locos were built with the infamous High Hood....there must be some reason why this would be advantageous....I obviously can not see why....seems to me to cut too much of your forward view. I happen to like the look of them and have one on my layout but can not find the practicallity of it....please help me become learned.
High hood locomotives provided as much visibility as steam locomotives, so it wasn't considered a great problem. Generally, the short hood was supposed to be the front, except some railroad companies were so suspicious of diesels' safety and so used to having steam locomotives that they reversed the controls so the long hood was generally the front of the locomotives. The added flexibility of not explicitly having to turn the locomotive at the end of the line was an advantage over steam locomotives, which couldn't pull trains when pointed the wrong way, or single-ended diesel locomotives like E and F units.
Jetrock wrote:The added flexibility of not explicitly having to turn the locomotive at the end of the line was an advantage over steam locomotives, which couldn't pull trains when pointed the wrong way, or single-ended diesel locomotives like E and F units.
The added flexibility of not explicitly having to turn the locomotive at the end of the line was an advantage over steam locomotives, which couldn't pull trains when pointed the wrong way, or single-ended diesel locomotives like E and F units.
Actually, steam locomotives can pull trains either way. The Strasburg RR tourist line routinely runs their steamers "backwards" since there aren't any turning facitilies at the end of the line. When the train reaches Paradise, PA...the locomotive runs around the train for the trip back to Strasburg.
At one time, many roads ran their early Geeps and SD's long-hood forward. N&W and Southern, along with NS continued the practice until recently.
emdgp92 wrote: Jetrock wrote: The added flexibility of not explicitly having to turn the locomotive at the end of the line was an advantage over steam locomotives, which couldn't pull trains when pointed the wrong way, or single-ended diesel locomotives like E and F units.Actually, steam locomotives can pull trains either way. The Strasburg RR tourist line routinely runs their steamers "backwards" since there aren't any turning facitilies at the end of the line. When the train reaches Paradise, PA...the locomotive runs around the train for the trip back to Strasburg.At one time, many roads ran their early Geeps and SD's long-hood forward. N&W and Southern, along with NS continued the practice until recently.
Jetrock wrote: The added flexibility of not explicitly having to turn the locomotive at the end of the line was an advantage over steam locomotives, which couldn't pull trains when pointed the wrong way, or single-ended diesel locomotives like E and F units.
Just to add on that, many units from those roads had/have dual control stands for operating in either direction.
In the 1930's, diesel switchers from EMC, Alco and Baldwin were built with the long hood in front and the cab in the rear - much as steam engines did. Some engines like the Fairbanks Morse H-10-44 of 1944 even had the cab roof extending back beyond the rear of the cab like steam engines did. (Interestingly, 1930's passenger diesels like the Burlington Zephyr had the crew cab right in front.)
Designing engines to run long-hood forward continued with early road switchers like the 1941 RS-1. A few railroads ordered engines to run short-hood forward (or with dual controls) but most went long hood first. The GP-7 of 1949 was designed to run short-hood forward (at least, that's the way the three EMD demo units were set up) but they could be ordered long-hood forward. Great Northern GP's and SD's were all run long-hood forward until their GP-30's arrived in 1963.
Starting about 1958-59 railroads could order diesels with a low short hood. Some like N&W continued to order long-hood forward engines with high short hoods - although oddly enough, some of their last long-hood forward engines actually had low short hoods, supposedly it made it easier for the crew to check the train to the rear.
If it had 2 hoods, the Santa Fe always ran the short hood forward. The hood on the GM F units usually housed the toilet.
Dick
Texas Chief
F units don't have hoods.
Texas Chief wrote:If it had 2 hoods, the Santa Fe always ran the short hood forward. The hood on the GM F units usually housed the toilet.DickTexas Chief
On a unit with a high short nose, there is much more room in the toilet area. Low nose units usually require a bit of contorting to get down in there.
F-units as built had the toilet in the engine room. Needed to be careful. When the engineer throttled up, a vacuum was created in the engine room. Sometimes what goes down comes up. Some toilets were moved into the nose.
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com