The BL2 was a bit better than an F for switching since it had some visibility to the rear. GM&O also put a headlight and footboards on the rear of some of its FA1's for local service.
20 or so years before starting their CF-7 rebuild program, ATSF tried to use a handful of F-units as road switchers by adding footboards at each end. Even with the footboards, I doubt the conversion was very useful since the cab still had poor visibility. This is similar to EMD's briefly-marketed BL-2. This was the first time I’ve heard of this being done to an F-unit. In recent years, some former Amtrak F40s had footboards added to the front and rear too, and they are probably about as useful as F-units in yard switching too:). The pic shows a “cat whisker” FT in this configuration, which means the conversion was done sometime around 1950.
From the website: “FTA 405 (ex-143C) was one of a number of single unit FT road-switcher conversions with footboards front and rear and a steam locomotive type headlight at the rear on the roof. She carried full blue and yellow markings with the red stripe deleted completely but still with the "catwhisker" nose emblem at Bakersfield in May 1951. -Stan Kisler”
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