High Hood Locos

[Anonymous]

Browsing through photos on Raipictures.net, I saw some NS SD40s with high hoods. ( http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=81395 ). Why did N&W order high hood locos when the majority of SD40s I've seen have low/chopped hoods? Surely the latter offers much better visibility for the engineer.

[jchnhtfd]

Some high hood locos had steam generators in the high hood for passenger service in the goodol' days of steam heat... sometimes they just came that way (the early ones)... tradition!

and probably several other reasons...

Visibility wasn't really a concern at the time -- most railroads were still converting from steam, and many ran long hood forward for a while -- sometimes for years (CV was still running its GPs long hood forward in the '80s, for instance)

[edbenton]

The Southern and N&W ordered their engines set up to run long hood forward till the ealry 80's even the GP 50's that the Southern orderd where set up that way. It had something to do with the crew saftey of having the long hood forward also teh former steam crews liked it that way.

[adrianspeeder]

Crew impact safety.

Adrianspeeder

[coborn35]

The Great Northern ( God Bless James J. Hill) always ran their Geeps long hood forward. Maybe NS just wants to be different?

[Anonymous]

N&W dieselized with high-hood engines with dual controls. They didn't ever have to be turned or switched, but could be operated equally easily in either direction.

The statement that steam crews preferred the long hood forward is in error. Everybody preferred the short hood forward for visibility reasons, even when a fireman was present. I know of one grade crossing accident, though, with a GP9 operating long hood forward, where the train hit a tandem trailer load of coil steel. The impact broke the engine mounting pins and moved the engine back two inches on the frame. If there'd been nothing in front of the crew but the short hood's toilet, they'd have probably not survived.

Even with this factor present, most crews preferred the short hood forward. I've run N&W engines both ways, and never minded the long hood forward as long as I had an alert crew member on the left side.

Old Timer

[fuzzybroken]

Ah, here's a topic I take great interest in! N&W and Southern both ordered all their locomotives set up to run long hood forward, with the short hood being full-height to discourage anybody from "gettin' any ideas". [}:)] I believe NS may have even ordered some of their early diesels this way too, and they were the absolute last railroad to "give" on running trains short-hood-forward, to order all their locomotives with low short-hoods, and to order wide-nose locomotives (and as a result, the only railroad with standard-cab Dash 9s!). They also have not ordered any AC traction locomotives either.

An interesting story: When Southern Railway purchased the original Norfolk Southern, they had all their locomotives with low short hoods and ran short-hood-forward. Of course, this wasn't the way that Southern did things, so they were promptly sent to the shop, where the short hoods were rebuilt to high short hoods, and the control stands were turned so that the engines would run the "right way". Gotta love them Southerners!!!

-Mark Hintz
www.fuzzyworld3.com

[ValleyX]

I have to second Old Timer's remarks. I don't recall anyone really liking or preferring the long hood in the lead, it was just an accepted practice, like it or not. I don't think the old steam men preferred it, I specifically recall one saying that he never minded or even thought about having to look out along that boiler but he hated seeing that long hood in the lead.

[Anonymous]

There are still some high hoods running around my neck of the woods. They all seem to run short hood forward... and those that I have seen appear to be doing yard duty. This is NS... and the marker letters under the number always say SOU, which I guess means SOUTHERN.

Erik

[arbfbe]

The GN quit running GPs long hood foreward with the GP20s. All later units, GP30, GP35, SD45, SDP40 and SDP45 all came with low noses and short hood lead operation.

[Anonymous]

NS first set of C39-8's, although they where low hood, still had the "F" designation on the long hood end. I believe most of these units were retired (or stored?) when NS got it's most recent order of Dash 9's and SD70M's.

http://www.nslocos.com/ns8573.html

Here's a good, err bad, wreck making a case for long hood forward operation........

http://www.nslocos.com/ns8589.html

[PNWRMNM]

My recollection is that GN GP-20 were high short hood and ran long end first. The first low nose units on GP were the GP-30's.

Mac

[zardoz]

The ALCO C-628's that the CNW bought from the N&W came with dual controls for operating with either end leading. The short hood had the "F" (front) designation.

[fuzzybroken]

N&W seemed to be kinda open-ended about the whole long hood forward thing, and usually specified dual control stands. On the other hand, SOU ran long hood forward, and that was that! (See my previous post.)

-Mark
www.fuzzyworld3.com

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the answers people [:)]

QUOTE: Originally posted by fuzzybroken

An interesting story: When Southern Railway purchased the original Norfolk Southern, they had all their locomotives with low short hoods and ran short-hood-forward. Of course, this wasn't the way that Southern did things, so they were promptly sent to the shop, where the short hoods were rebuilt to high short hoods, and the control stands were turned so that the engines would run the "right way". Gotta love them Southerners!!!

Hehe I like that. It sounds like the Southern had a similar attitude to the Great Western here in the UK. They did things "their" way even after nationalisation and nobody from central BR would get in their way. [:p]

I was aware that GN ran long hood forward but I thought they were the exception rather than the rule. Our Class 20's were intended originally for long hood forward operation, but they ended up usually working nose to nose in pairs because of the visibility issue.

[alcodave]

Just a question here,did the Norfolk Southern order their widenose units with dual control stands? I have Seen them use a dash9-44cw on the local yard job here in town and it spends half of it's day of work running long hood foward.Seems to me that would be hard on the engineer for visibility ?