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Locomotive Cabs, and Crew Safety in Collisions

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Thanks for those photos Ed.  That certainly shows the collision posts well.  I take it that the large round hole near the top would be for connecting a lifting cable.  They would just torch away some sheet metal, and open access to that collision post.  It is interesting how the posts have their leading edges rolled outward by the stacking and welding of strips.  I am guessing that those strips are not cut on a taper, but rather are simply canted and the resulting gap filled with weld.  It is a strange detail both in construction and purpose.  <o:p></o:p> I wonder what the actual claim of performance for those collision posts is.  I think they would do a lot of good in cases of grade crossing collisions with highway vehicles.  Maybe that is all they are meant to do, but I read somewhere in one of the links that the crashworthiness of locomotives anticipates the need to protect in collisions with other locomotives and railcars.  It does not seem like the posts are adequate for that degree of force.  I can imagine that there is lots of bureaucratic wrangling within the industry and regulatory agencies about what kind of crash protection is needed.  <o:p></o:p> To get cab protection for hitting railroad equipment, the locomotive frame would have to raise a bulwark at its front that would have the same collapse strength as the frame itself when the frame takes the compression force directly on its end.  Those raised posts in the photos would have to be braced far back into the cab area.  And the frame itself would have to be reinforced against the introduction of this new bending force that would result from the raised offset protection taking a hit.  It seems like there would be room for this structure under the cab, but no further back due the position of the machinery.  At the very front, the raised structure could even extend a bit higher into the top of the nose.
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