Western Railroad Discussion > SD70ACE Interior

Taken At Franklin Park This weekend

Mike Slater

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Its so nice to see a REAL control stand again.
AH

If you were sitting in the engineer's seat, would you have better visibility with the other window design or even the whole cab design of the most recent SD70Ms (Phase II cab?).

Guess you call this a modernized conventional control stand?

Hey, where's the key to start it? Or is there a crank on the front, like the old Model "A".

Hey, how 'bout the IHB GeeP out front, who cares about the yellow thing.


TCS - eye dew knot

Can anyone tell me why an attendant call button is still standard equipment when the units are for freight?

spdesertdog Wrote:
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> Can anyone tell me why an attendant call button is
> still standard equipment when the units are for
> freight?

It alerts anyone in the other units that we arrived ( or wakes up anyone deadheading in the rear units to get up.) or need the brakeman to come on up to the lead unit, or in my case it alerts all the ilegal aliens that we've arrived in west colton.

I haven't had the chance to run one yet, but I'd be concerned about the vertical windows picking up weird reflections like the early 3 windowed SD60's. On those you get reflections from every direction which makes it difficult to see out of them. I'll have to save my rants about them until I get one on the point. I still prefer the GEVO cab over the last of the SD70 cabs.-BMT

Thank you very much WC581. While I bemoan the loss of my beloved FP45 teardrop windows, this is a nice-looking interior, and, perhaps, the way it is arranged, the added visibility would be lost. I HATE to be eating so mucy crow the past week. I'm still studying the direct front-on view from the engineer's seat, but it appears that the way the info screens are arrayed over the "mini-desk" (which I have to admit is a nice feature), it looks like visibility is decent.

The 5127-5231 class units had the AAR control stand pictured, but do not have electronic air brakes or dual info screens (they only have one), thus, you can see down the teardrop on those units. This is a similar, but at the same time, different setup. As on the GEVO's, I am glad that WABCO, rather than New York Air Brake was the supplier of the electronic air brakes. The NYAB "Knorr" electronic brake is a very difficult to control "shortstroke" brake, while the WABCO electronic brake is as smooth as silk.

Now that I've said something good about the SD70ACe, let me throw something out there that could be improved. The GE GEVO's have the trainorder clipboard ON the minidesk. As you might note, there is a trainorder clip, but it is down around the level of where your knees would be, and therefore, useless. When you have 10 or 15 speed restrictions, you want them right there in front of you. I suspect they will get input on this, and that clipboards will appear on later models. Heck...if I remember right, even the 5127-5231 class SD70M's (the ones with AAR control stands) had a trainorder clip right in front of you.