Western Railroad Discussion > Anti-climbers

What is an anti-climber?

Coupler looks like a horizontal "T". See on tanks mostly. In case of accident reduces the possibility of one coupler "climbing over the other" and puncturing the tank skin.

On the front of soe locos. The nose platform extends out.
it keeps vehicle and other matter from entering the cab,
SP's SD tunnel motors, GP-60's, and GP-40's had them. Also
UP's SD-50, SD-60(M), SD-70M, and SD-90Macs have them too.
There was a thread a while back showing a anti-climber on a
SP unit.

During low to mid speed collisions between two trains or a locomotive and another object (often a car or truck), the lighter of the two objects tend to "ride up" on the other. This trend can be very bad for a train crew in the cab of the locomotive being "ridden up" on. A common example; a train hits a large truck at a grade crossing, the train most defiantly weighs more than the truck and the plow on the locomotive adds to the equation, tossing the truck up in the air. As the locomotive continues to move forward it will pass through the new flight path of the truck, allowing the truck to strike the cab area of the loco and possibly injuring the crew inside. The anti climber, working kind of like a bumper and more like a very strong shield, will direct the impacted object back down to the ground. Most anti climbers are a heavy steel extension of the frame and pilot. They also tend to be shaped like a wedge to help push the wreckage to the sides so the locomotive won't hit it again and start the whole process over again. The pointy part of the porches on the front and back of a locomotive are the anticlinbers. I'm not sure when anticlimbers were first used, but most 2nd generation and newer unit have them in some fashion or other and I might be wrong but I believe they are now required either by law or labor agreement (union contracts).

Hope this helps.

Rick Bacon 3
Greeley, CO

EMD E- and F-units all had a horizontally ribbed anti-climber. I believe this style was first used on trolleys and interurbans. They were designed to "lock" together so one couldn't climb vertically and then telescope into the next car.

I would think that on newer locomotives with "smooth" anticlimbers, if the lead locomotive were to hit a freight car (or another locomotive), the coupler and draft gear on the freight car, when starting to climb up, would disengage the coupler of the locomotive, then be forced UNDER the anticlimber, stopping verticle movement.

Interestingly, in 1976-77 when EMD lengthened the nose on GP's and SD's from 81" to 88", anti-climbers became mandatory, as the increased nose length reduced the size of the front walkway. The anti-climber, extending beyond the end sill, effectively lengthened the the walkway, as handrails were mounted at the front (and rear) edges. Hence, the anticlimber also keeps the crew from having to climb over the nose to go from side to side!

it looks like the front of the engine's frame, so it's not really obvious. Here, the number and the stripe are painted on the front edge of the anticlimber.

I wonder how effective anti-climbers truly are? I recall a slow-speed head-on several years ago at Eola, Illinois, where a BN SD40-2 rode up onto an anticlimber-equipped SP GP60 and nose into its cab, killing the conductor inside.

I'm not saying that anticlimbers are useless, I just wonder how often they've helped. Seatbeats sometimes do more harm than good, so safety appliances aren't always perfect....

~~Pete

The original anti-climbers were on trolleys -
they're several (3 usually) horizontal bars
sorta like 'teeth' , located where the modern
anticlimber is. The idea was that in a collision
between two trolleys the anticlimbers would interlock
and one trolley wouldn't climb up on the other.

Somewhere along the line they figured out that
the important part was the "scoop down" action
mentioned in prev. posts, and they forgot the
'teeth' business.