Diesel Loco Lettering

[Anonymous]

I've looked for information regarding why the "F" is on the front frames of locos. I'm assuming it denotes front, but why is their a need to identify the front of the loco?

[Anonymous]

I suspect it may have to do with the engineers seat being on the right side of cab and making sure it's pointed in the right direction. There are exceptions though, as some hood units have controls on both sides.

[Anonymous]

The "f" on the front frames of the locos depicts front. THis is placed there because the deisel locos can run forward or backward equally. So when a yard guy tells the engineer to "move forward" the engineer will move in the direction of that "f" regardless of which way the train is or the loco.

[jwar]

The "F" on the front is a Federal AAR (American Assoc of Railroads) regulation as locomotives can run depending on the home road, normaly cab forward or cab to the rear, as different railroads had thier preference of which end of the locomotive was to actually be the front. . The letter is no smaller then three inches and in a contrasting color.

When the shop or road crews make up a consist or add / remove a unit in a consist (MU) the air brakes and electrical controlls have to be swiched in the cab of the locomotive. If I remember correctley the electrical selectors, were, Lead cab forward, lead cab to rear, trail cab forward, trail cab to rear, dead in triansit,. The air brakes were either swiched to lead or trail. The term Lead is the forward controlling unit.

Being each trailing locomotive is operated either by air or electrical signals (air hoses and MU cables between units) it is importent to know which end is the true electrical front, so they will not power up in opposite directions and the air brakes to opperate correctley. When we checked out a consist using foreign power (locomotive from a different road) we allways looked for the "F" on the unit to be sure, then tested air brakes and wheel movment before releasing the consist to the train crews....John

[Anonymous]

This is all true, however there is a more basic reason, that i feel is the primary one. On some "centercab" locomotives, such as G.E.'s 44 and 45 tonners, its very hard to tell which end is truly foward, unless of course, you look at the control stand. Putting an "F" on the front, eliminates this confusion

[Anonymous]

Well I suspected that these explainations were the case. I thank all for their input. Cliff