Can anyone give me some insight on how long the Great Northern ran the long end first on the Gpeeps?
Great Northern is not my area of expertise but I do know early BN. There are a lot of ex-GN units that BN ran long end first so I'd imagine they ran that way up to the merger.
It may have to do with the controls being set up long hood first. In which case it should have been as long as they were around. Dual controls added considerable expense to the purchase price.
The great northern, to my knowledge, always ran its geeps, long hood forward. They ordered them that way, and they never converted them to my knowledge.
JJF
Prototypically modeling the Great Northern in Minnesota with just a hint of freelancing.
Yesterday is History.
Tomorrow is a Mystery.
But today is a Gift, that is why it is called the Present.
GN ordered long hood forward up to and including their GP20's. Those coming after (GP30, GP35) were short hood forward.
They were never changed by GN.
BN "changed" a few during rebuilds: all the GP10 (1974-1975) and GP5 1365. If it was converted to low-nose, that became the front.
BNSF got some former GN Geeps. It appears that if they were converted to low nose, that became the front. If they were not, the long hood remained the front.
GN 661 (built 3/1954) lasted on BNSF as 1610 until 1994, as a low nose.
Ed
Also, the great northern ordered it gp 20s with a high hood. Id recomend this website http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/ if you have any questions related to GN power.
The GN, PRR, NW, Southern, and others ordered long nose forward GP's and SD's long nose forward for engine crew protection in case of crossing accidents. I had a crappy relief on the X-GN side after the 1970 merger, and one former NP engineer cursed them.
Ed Burns
Don't forget that engineers and railroads were coming off steam engines that had a vision restricting boiler hanging out front. It made perfect sense that they would put the long end first on diesels. In other words, "that's the way we've always done it".
I forgot to tell you that the GN purchased pre WWII road switchers and well as post war ALCO road switchers long nose forward. The short nose (on some at least) housed a steam generator. Those locomotives were used on branch line passenger trains.
I think running long end first was a hold over from steam
1) You had all that real estate to protect you if things got pear shaped
2) Vision down the long hood might have even been better than down a boiler
Running short end first became popular when the generation raised on everyone having an automobile got promoted to the right hand side of the cab
When old timers complained they were told, "Run the train correctly and you won't need a long hood for protecction" (Yes, I know, there's the other guy, rock slides, gasoline trucks racing you to the crossing, etc, etc)
7j43kGN ordered long hood forward up to and including their GP20's. Those coming after (GP30, GP35) were short hood forward.
Just to add a little, GN bought road switcher units (GP/SD etc.) set up to run 'long hood forward' until they started buying units with the lower short hood (as noted, starting with GP-30s, which were also the first diesels delivered in the 'simplified' green and orange scheme.) All later GN road switcher purchases were engines built with the low short hood and were run short hood forward. The feeling was the greatly increased visibility the lower short hood afforded was a bigger safety plus than having the long hood in front of the crew.