MisterBeasley The Milwaukee Road ran their GP9s and Alco RS3s long hood forward, and so do I.
The Milwaukee Road ran their GP9s and Alco RS3s long hood forward, and so do I.
Milw GP9's(all 128 of them) & RS3's(21) vwere delivered with the short hood set up as the 'front'. The SD7's(24) and SD9's(15) were set up that way as well. The RS1 & RSC2 engines were delivered with the long hood forward.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
selector It seems 'right' to me to run them short hood forward, but I know full well that the railroads ran them as if they were steamers with a long boiler out front. At least, most did. Sooo, when someone on another forum asked me why this Fairbanks-Morse H24-66 was backing out of a tunnel, I replied that it was actually entering, but shoving a work train in to do repairs due to a rock fall from the roof of the tunnel. The asker was polite enough to accept my response. -Crandell
It seems 'right' to me to run them short hood forward, but I know full well that the railroads ran them as if they were steamers with a long boiler out front. At least, most did.
Sooo, when someone on another forum asked me why this Fairbanks-Morse H24-66 was backing out of a tunnel, I replied that it was actually entering, but shoving a work train in to do repairs due to a rock fall from the roof of the tunnel. The asker was polite enough to accept my response.
-Crandell
So um... where's its rear markers or FRED? And why is it not observing rule 17 lighting.... ???
(Hint: FRA 221.17 will set you free... :-)
John
I run most of mine short hood forward but with the new stuff out there - Dash-7-8-9, it is hard to run long hood foward and have a view of what is a head of you. Until Crabville Eastern Rail Road has time develope the plot of land by the hot water heater and put in a turn table and to avoid the Hand of God Turntable method, I have my engines pointed the direction that works for my runs. I have a pair of CSX GP-38 that are MU'ed tail to tail so they can pull in any direction and the CERR RS-36 is the only one that gets to run long hood forward. For the local pick ups and drop offs it runs short hood forward and when switching in the yard your out on MOW it will run long hood forward. CSX has just aquired a new genset that will be doing the yard work come the weekend so all that the R36 will see LHF will be MOW work.
Actually a lot of railroads that ran Trainmasters ran them short hood forward, even if they ran smaller locos like Geeps long hood forward. The TM was just TOO huge. Seems silly by today's standards, but the Trainmaster was HUGE relative to other contemporary locos.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
That was my impression, Randy, when I first parked it near my NYC Hudson. It was a monster of a diesel, and seeing anything beyond its long snout would have been extremely difficult on any curve sharper than about 4 deg.
pastorbob ATSF in 1989, I run them the way God intended, short hood /nose leading. Bob
ATSF in 1989, I run them the way God intended, short hood /nose leading.
Bob
According to the PRR & NW and God, long hood first.
The F is on the long hood!
Rick
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
I once operated a Conrail GP38 that had it's control stand on the "fireman's" side, so the long hood was forward, even though it had a low nose. At first I thought this was kinda odd, but soon realized I could easily see signals regardless of the direction of travel.
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
Flashwave Boiler explosions work as such that the water keeps the metal from reaching insane temperatures, like a buffer. Take the water out, and the crown sheet begins to heat like a firecracker. Water comes back into the picture, and is flash-boiled into steam at approxiamtely the speed of sound. Then steam, as steam is want to do, tries to expand. And when that happns, ain't no metal boiler, expecially one that is weakened by being hot an malliable like a forge, gonna stand in it's way. One explosion later, and your picking boiler parts out of the first three cars.
Boiler explosions work as such that the water keeps the metal from reaching insane temperatures, like a buffer. Take the water out, and the crown sheet begins to heat like a firecracker. Water comes back into the picture, and is flash-boiled into steam at approxiamtely the speed of sound. Then steam, as steam is want to do, tries to expand. And when that happns, ain't no metal boiler, expecially one that is weakened by being hot an malliable like a forge, gonna stand in it's way. One explosion later, and your picking boiler parts out of the first three cars.
You're closer to the real situation than the previous explanation, but when there's no water over the crown sheet (which is the top of the firebox), it overheats and fails - collapses, splits, whatever. The sudden decrease in pressure (all of the steam and water in the boiler is under pressure and is at a temperature much higher than the normal boiling point of water) causes all of that hot water to turn instantly to steam, increasing about 1500 times in volume.
Wayne
selector -Crandell
Looking at the F-M manual the H24-66 is 66 feet over pulling faces, 330 000# for general service3 units and 375 000# for Trainmaster units, and minimum curvature of 27 degree's for locomotive alone or 21 degree's for locomotive coupled to an "AAR 401611 freight car". The prime mover is an inline 12-cylinder diesel engine with an upper and lower crankshaft and an upper and lower set of pistons, with the piston crowns (top) facing each other in the center of the block.
As comparison an SD7 was around 360 000#'s and 60'-8" over pulling faces, less than 6 foot difference. Not a monsterous difference. What I think though is that F-M trains in general looked gigantic because of their design. The prime mover requires so much height that the side sills end up being tall compared to a GP9 or even an RS-3. Not to mention they also look like a block. The early Geeps and Alco's all had a lower hood height as compared to cab roof height, making them appear smaller, while the F-M's had a uniform hood/cab height making them look bigger in general.
Now, with all that said I must add that I'm a Badger Boy, born raised and most likely die in good ole Wisconsin (with a brick of cheese in one hand and a gallon of milk in the other) so I am pretty partial to the Beloit, WI built locomotives.
I point the end with the little F toward the front
That is the Southerns side running Long Hood up Front! But up here in the Northern parts of the N&W it was the Short Hood Way!!!!!!! ( AKA Wabash and NKP) Kevin
I'm from a short hood forward crowd except for switchers where I thing the visibility should be towards the work at hand.
Crandel, That's a beautiful snow scene
Springfield PA
The end of the locomotive with the little white "F" on it. Most railroads use this to designate the end that should be considered the front.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
The "F" doesn't necessarily indicate which end is better to run from; it's just a designation. Even Budd RDCs had them.
Well after 4 pages I think we need a review of the question at hand that I possed originally. Which way do YOU run your locomotives, not the prototype.
Since the whole "F" designation has been described a few times, I will also mention that Alco, Baldwin, and Fair-Banks Morse were built with the long-hood forward standard. A RR would have to order their locomotives from these manufacturers with the engineer controls on the short-hood side of the cab, or as some N&W and Southern with dual-cab controls.