Nostalgia & History > Does anyone remember the simple nose?

A simple horn arrangement up top. No PTC clutter. ONE headlight, no ditch lights. Just your basic class lights. No extra MU hoses. No spare MU cable, no spare MU cable “dummy storage”… Seems like a long time ago!

1. AT&SF 6311 greets the morning at Wellington, KS on April 14, 1980.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/22 03:03 by santafe199.

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Never have liked ditch lights.

tomstp Wrote:
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> Never have liked ditch lights.

Hard to say how many lives they’ve saved.....but there’s probably been a few!

yes sir i remember the bn 4 and 6 axle ge's

           I would venture a guess that absolutely no one could tell how many livesditch lights have saved. Probably because there is no way to tell if they were a deterent or not. If there was no collision because of the ditch lights, nothing happened and therefore there is no report. No documentation = nothing happened. Lots of things like that in todays world.

Um, nobody's mentioned oscillating headlights...were they effective in regards to safety?

That's because it WAS a long time ago  ;-)
JB

loopy7764 Wrote:
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> Um, nobody's mentioned oscillating
> headlights...were they effective in regards to
> safety?

In my opinion, YES!  But, that's only one engineer's opinion.

loopy7764 Wrote:
> Um, nobody's mentioned oscillating
> headlights...were they effective in regards to
> safety?
 
   I remember when  L & N  had them years ago, and always thought they were very effective.  I also think the flashing ditch lights on  CSX and  NS are  much better than the constant ones .

Ah, but look at all the garbage it does have, starting with outside walkways and their attendant handrails, drop step, and stepwells.  Then there's that almost comically puny snowplow pilot, grab irons here and there and wherever, and not one but two cut levers.  Back in the days of the really, really simple nose of the mid-to-late 1930's streamline era (think EMD's TA and EA), none of that would have been tolerated.  Back then, even the headlight was countersunk to match the nose contour and the front coupler could be retracted behind a door so the smooth lines weren't interrupted.  "Function" wasn't even uttered in the same breath as "form."

...having said all that, though, I really did like the fresh-faced look of Santa Fe's U23B's.  Thanks for sharing.

Oscillating headlights were effective enough that I was able to convince the FRA to grandfather them when we were doing the consensus rule making for the law - 49CFR229.133(c).  The same could not be said for strobes or rotating beacons.  The push for ditch lights was almost entirely based on a study done by the Volpe Center and theoretical numbers of lives saved based on Canadian experience.  There is real science behind the concept of the three light triangle allowing the person along the right of way to better judge the speed of the approaching train.  Since the ditch light system operates with electronic circuits, rather than the mechanical equipment that must be maintained in the oscillating lights, the railroads had a predisposition to vote for the low maintenance solution.


whistlepig Wrote:
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> loopy7764 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Um, nobody's mentioned oscillating
> > headlights...were they effective in regards to
> > safety?
>
> In my opinion, YES!  But, that's only one
> engineer's opinion.