Leo_Ames It does tell why CPR management likely avoided the feature by saying that BC Rail went with an order of B units specifically because of the higher purchase cost of their new safety cabs. But I don't think it's an earth shattering revelation to anyone that the safer cab cost more to produce and purchase.
It does tell why CPR management likely avoided the feature by saying that BC Rail went with an order of B units specifically because of the higher purchase cost of their new safety cabs. But I don't think it's an earth shattering revelation to anyone that the safer cab cost more to produce and purchase.
The M420B's were intended to function as remote units in the middle or at the tail end of a train. Remember that the Locotrol I receiver equipment then in use was bulky enough that it normally required a separate "Robot Car" to accomodate it.
Even so, the M420B's actually had a complete control stand, unlike the rudimentary hostler controls found in most B-units.
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I've also read that visibility (ironically) was a disadvantage of the new cabs. not so much with road service, but more so in switching applications where the engineer had huge blind spots directly in front of the cab. Also the side windows were smaller than on conventional cabs, a disadvantage where orders were still "hooped up" to the crew.. smaller windows made that task more difficult.
Interesting though.. likely the "not invented here" syndrome had alot to do with the wide cab not being adopted as standard more quickly.. 1973 is when CN made them standard on all new units. 1989 is when the cab (in a more modernized version) was finally adopted as the industry standard... and even then NS and IC continued to order the spartan cab into the early 90s. a bit of irony there too.. NS parents N&W and Southern both ran their engines long hood forward and special ordered high short hoods ostensibly for added crew protection.. yet they were among the last to order the safety cab. And when CN purchased the IC they also, inadvertently, became the last road to order the spartan cab.. CN.. first and last..
Certain features of the original safety cab were discontinued, the major one being the four window arrangement on the cab face. It was thought that the smaller windows were less likely to break (especially when hitting a tank truck?). I have no idea why they reverted to two (for a time three) windows, but no doubt cost played a role.
It is my understanding that CN, being a Crown Corporation at the time, did a lot more research and development than CP. CN also had a internal locomotive cab committee, comprised of both managers and union representatives. The safety cab is probably the largest improvement to come out of those meetings. The cab committee was quietly gutted after Hunter Harrison came to CN.
The safety cab was indeed a extra-cost option, that CP and most other railroads obviously felt was not worth the price, for their own internal reasons. I'm only speculating here, but even if the Unions made a lot of internal noise it may have fallen on deaf ears, it's not like the railroads have a great track record of listening to their employees.
One could ask the same question about why it was only Conrail and CN that started ordering EMD units with WhisperCabs, while Norfolk Southern continued to specify standard non-safety cabs into the late 1990s.
CN went back to ordering 'Thundercabs' during Harrison's time, until EMD made the WhisperCab a standard feature after complaints about excessive noise. BNSF actually banned their Thundercab SD70ACe's from leading trains for that reason.
There should be plenty of room for extra electronics in the nose of a SD40-2W, and there is still all that 'front porch' space that could be used to extend the nose. If there wasn't enough room CP could have asked for a 'snoot' version of the safety cab.
Good points Leo, I would have thought that the GM people would have approached CP .. i.e. building only one variation would have dropped production cost as well. .. and presumably the purchase price to the railroad. Also, the unions appear to have been strangely silent on the issue... One would think that the CP engineers and conductors would have embraced and demanded the better cabs..
Maybe they thought that if the competition was the driving force behind the creation of the safety cab, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be?
Just to save anyone some time that might think like I did, I've already glanced through the annual motive power surveys in Trains during the 1970's and did a search for SD40-2W in their DVD archive program thinking there might be clues. But nothing of help appeared.
A lot of CPR's SD40-2's came with the snoot nose and remote control slave equipment. Was there room inside the SD40-2W nose for that equipment (While I assume there would actually be more space, I've never been inside a SD40-2W)?
In the late 70s GM London would have been building two versions of the SD40-2 side by side at their London plant. Version 1 was the spartan cab plain Jane version for CP. The other was the "safety cab" version for CN.. the safety cab being better than the spartan cab in terms of withstanding more than three times the force in the event of a collision. So why then didn't the CP union members demand that they too get the safety cabs? Or did the CP people doubt the merits of the new cabs?
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