Nostalgia & History > B&O operation question

Why was B&O geeps set up to run long
end forward ?????

JLSeale

Loog hood forward seemed to be an East Coast thing. West Coast railroads were pretty much all Short Hood Forward believers.

This was covered rather recently my others including me. All builders originally set up road-switches as long hood forward since crews were used to looking down long steam loco boilers. But gradually visibility became more important. Buyers could specify which hood first. But, very generally, most Alco and Baldwin units were set up long hood first unless changed; but EMD and FM by customer preference. Eastern RR's wanted long hood and Midwest & west RR's short. Some roads were anomalies. On WM and NH, Alcos were long and EMD's short. In the west both GN and WP had some EMD's set up long hood first. The Canadians varied too, CN long, CP short. Many RR's had at least some units with dual controls or control stands set up so locos could be operated both ways; usually for commuter reasons. Both NW and SOU had many units that they freely operated either way but used different methods; see previous posts on this. In the early 60's low short hoods were introduced by the GP-20 I believe, and some RR's like my favorite WM began a program to convert their short hood EMDs to low hood. The only big RRs to stick with high short hood bi-directional control units were NW and SOU and that lasted into the 1980s. NW even bought units set up long hood forward with low short hoods for some reason. Plenty of pics of them. Mergers and the ability of units in recent times to have uniform equipment so they could operate almost anywhere on any RR changed all that. Now locomotives are like call girls; they can operated anywhere as long as they have the right equipment.

NYC and PRR were long hood forward but the Wabash and the NKP were short hood forward.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

JLinDE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This was covered rather recently my others
> including me. All builders originally set up
> road-switches as long hood forward since crews
> were used to looking down long steam loco boilers.
> But gradually visibility became more important.
> Buyers could specify which hood first. But, very
> generally, most Alco and Baldwin units were set up
> long hood first unless changed; but EMD and FM by
> customer preference. Eastern RR's wanted long
> hood and Midwest & west RR's short. Some roads
> were anomalies. On WM and NH, Alcos were long and
> EMD's short. In the west both GN and WP had some
> EMD's set up long hood first. The Canadians varied
> too, CN long, CP short. Many RR's had at least
> some units with dual controls or control stands
> set up so locos could be operated both ways;
> usually for commuter reasons. Both NW and SOU had
> many units that they freely operated either way
> but used different methods; see previous posts on
> this. In the early 60's low short hoods were
> introduced by the GP-20 I believe, and some RR's
> like my favorite WM began a program to convert
> their short hood EMDs to low hood. The only big
> RRs to stick with high short hood bi-directional
> control units were NW and SOU and that lasted into
> the 1980s. NW even bought units set up long hood
> forward with low short hoods for some reason.
> Plenty of pics of them. Mergers and the ability of
> units in recent times to have uniform equipment so
> they could operate almost anywhere on any RR
> changed all that. Now locomotives are like call
> girls; they can operated anywhere as long as they
> have the right equipment.

All WP Geeps officially ran short hood first, although all GP7s/9s/20s (and the first ten GP35s)were delivered with dual control (which in my experience was almost never used). Eventually, an anomaly appeared: GP9 732 received cab damage that destroyed the short hood-facing control stand. That stand was not replaced when the unit was repaired, and the letter "F" was repainted onto the long hood end of the frame sill. The two Tidewater Southern RS-1s also ran long hood first.

The Canadians varied too, CN long, CP short.

This is true of CNR whose first generation roadswitchers ran long hood forward. But on CPR early MLW units such as RS-3 and RS-10 units were set up to run long hood forward while the later MLW RS-18 units ran short hood forward. CP's GMD GP7 and GP9 units came from the builder with controls oriented for short hood operation. CP's F-M units from were a mixture. The Train Masters were delivered with long hood ahead controls but were later switched. Thier H-Lines came both ways. Only some of the long hood ahead units were switched.

KG