Who decides which way is forward?

[Anonymous]

I know that diesels don't care which way is forward, but is there any rhyme or reason to the way they are put together in a freight train? If there are three or four lashed up, and you assume the first one faces forward, why don't they all face the same way? Is it just because they showed up in the yard that way? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

The units don't care which direction their headed but let me tell you we engineers do. If a certain job needs two units then they would try to couple them back to back so you don't have to look down the engine compartment on the return trip. Example: We depart point A, arrive at point B, run around our return traffic on a siding, and return to point A. The units don't get turned around. If I'm running the engine this way, when we enter a long right hand turn we can easily go half a mile or more befor I can get a view of what's behind me. You sure don't want "Sleepy the conductor" on the other side of the cab at this point!!
If we pick up units enroute for power to make a grade then it doesn't matter which way it's facing.
Units are often replaced due to needed repair or periodic inspection and/or maintenance. Since we no longer have Y's or turn tables on this end of our line it's quite important which way they are headed when they leave the engine house. Units dropped in pairs will be back to back and single units will face the direction that woks better for that job. The job I mostly work services a paper mill and only needs one unit to do it. With all the crossings and what not it works much better with your power headed one way then the other. Hope this helps. Slofr8.

[cabforward]

in noticing how diesels are positioned on a long-haul run, it seems they always have a certain "something" which i don't understand, and can barely describe.. 3 or more units, maybe up to 6, at the front.. at least one is always facing the other way.. in long arrangements, the chances are more would face the rear, it's only logical.. but in 3 or 4 units, only 1 faces the rear.. this is not an absolute observation; it just seems that this what i have seen in long-haul scheduling.. if true, why, among a set of 3-4 units is only 1 facing the rear?

[Anonymous]

Sleepy the Conductor? How can I sleep when the engineer is snoring? No really it was a crap-shoot the way engines were facing when they came in. Somtimes all we had was east facing engines at the pad so one of the jobs I got a lot was to take them around the Delray wye to have them facing west. Eventually they would come back facing east. Power asignments dictate what you will have so it is not always easy to have a back to back consist.
As for getting a nice engine in the lead that is another story. A few time we would have a nice BN SD-70MAC on the way back from Toledo. The next trip out we would have the same unit with a dual control 40 in the lead. The man at the pad said the Head End device wouldn't work with the EOT. But we had it in the lead before and it worked. Oh well the joys of the railroad.

[Anonymous]

It all boils down to what's available on the ready tracks. The yard calls the house for X amount of horsepower for a departing train, and the "roundhouse foreman" has the hostlers connect up a set of locomotives. Years ago, when the railroads had enough manpower, the units could be properly oriented for the best possible configuration. ie, have at least 2 forward facing units on each end in case of a dead unit. Nowadays, with the cutting of personell, it's fortunate to even have a set of units actually ready for a train when they are needed. Ask any yardmaster what his biggest headache is. 9 times outta' 10, it's going to be finding power to pull the train. It's not going to be "lack of crew", the crew has probably been sitting downstairs playing "euchre" for the past 3 hours, waiting to go.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply, it does help! I never even thought of the visibiltiy side of things, but it makes a lot of sense.

Thanks to all for your time and efforts. It's gratly appreciated by this novice.

P.S. We have a Y nearby but since on of the lines is almost abandoned, it seems to be used mostly as a parking lot for freight cars from a small short line.

[Anonymous]

I had read some where that the class 1 rail companies were going to take there surplus Old power units. (Such as the SD-40's) And instead of scrapping them, put them in storage pools to be used when power was short. Is this true? Or did they find storage to expensive? There was a lot of new engines bought in the last couple years. Some one must be holding surplus power.
TIM ARGUBRIGHT

[wabash1]

the front of the engine was always when the engineer sat down and had his right arm out the window was the front. I myself like and perfer to run long hood out. as far as what is a yard masters biggest headache it use to be finding someone in the round house to work now its finding out where the remote controll engine is. And there is no reason for how engines are turned in a consist that is how they sat when they come in and if they are "b" units the roundhouse is not going to turn them.

[Anonymous]

Hey throttle jerker, easy on us conductors. Not all of us are lazy. Most of us are not!

[edblysard]

Hey j, had one of your high short hood SD40-2 in here yesterday, with the long hood forward. Its even marked with the F on the long hood, bell on the top, above the headlight. Seemed outa place with all the other short hoods. I asked the engineer how he liked it, he's with BNSF, it was on a run though. He said he asked for it to be up front, he wanted to run one and see what it was like. He had a blast. Dont remember the unit #, I think it was 2303?.
Stay Frosty,
Ed