Locomotive tender dog house

[dehusman]

And by the way they had a lousy view of the train. They were normally centered in the middle of the tender. Unless the train was going around a sharp curve, the only part of the train the brakeman could watch is the top 3 feet of the car right behind the engine.

Dave H.

[Anonymous]

Southern Railway started using doghouses for brakemen on engines equipped with automatic stokers, so the brakeman wouldn't have to cross the coal pile to get to the cab and possibly lose a foot in the screw.

N&W used them on older stoker engines for the same reason, but used them on the Y4-Y5-Y6 2-8-8-2s and the A 2-6-6-4s so they wouldn't have to extend the cabs for a brakeman's seat. There was a "foot warmer" in the doghouse, with a valve that the brakeman could use to adjust the comfort level . . .

Clinchfield provided a place on the front of the tender on some engines, for the brakeman. You can see windows in the top of the front of some of their tenders.

Old Timer

[BaltACD]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Modelcar

...On the dog house situation....I have wondered if they possibly had some steam heat piped back to them....? I really doubt though in that era that the Co. would have been thinking of the brakeman's comfort that much.

Dog houses had natures own heating and cooling system. Heated in Summer and Cooled in Winter.

[Modelcar]

...On the dog house situation....I have wondered if they possibly had some steam heat piped back to them....? I really doubt though in that era that the Co. would have been thinking of the brakeman's comfort that much.

[mloik]

Howdy all,

While watching train videos with my 2 yr old son, I've seen the "dog house" on the tender of some of Cumbres & Toltec's steam locomotives (and others).

I've been wondering why they have these; I just did a search on Google, and found one site that said they're for the brakeman. Is this true? Did locomotive cabs really not have enough space for the brakeman to ride there when not on the ground?

Thanks for any insights.

Michael
Ben Lomond, CA