Eastern Railroad Discussion > I have heard of UHF, VHF but still not used to "LHF..."

Still not used to seeing locomotives being run Long Hood Forward (LHF) but Wheeling seems to do it more often. I know Norfolk and Western, as well Southern, used to do this with regularity. Comments welcome for those that remember those roads doing this. First picture is the 4025 running to Orrville, Ohio to drop off twenty one cars to Orrville Stone. Second picture is of the Wheeling and Lake Erie 237; it was overcast before she showed up and I had to readjust the manual settings (quite quickly) to not be overexposed as to where the picture would have been all white. Have a good Thursday all...

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I saw a picture a few years ago of the "George Washington" in Frankfort, Ky. It had come from Louisville, about 50 miles. The locomotive was a BL-2 running LHF. The BL-2 was basically an F-unit with improved view to the rear for branch line switching. It may have been "improved" but it wasn't great. It wasn't as good as a U-boat or one of the GP's or SD's. The "GW" was going to Washington. For the sake of the engineers, I hope they didn't have to run that thing LHF for the next 600-800 miles.

John

1. If a railroad thinks only one unit is needed on a train and and it is a turnaround job with no way to turn the loco at the distant end then unit has to run long end first coming back.
2. Just curious, where are the CRYX reefers going on the WLE train?
3. The BL-2 on the George Washington 'Louisville' Section was often short enuf to need only one diesel despite the hilly terrain; and it would only go Louisville to Ashland, KY where the cars would connect to the regular section hauled by 2 usually 3 E8A's.
4. Many Eastern RR's chose to run the first generation road switchers long hood forward. Usually for crew safety reasons with many high volume road crossings. NYC, DH, DLW, ERIE, RDG, PRR, B&O, GTW and CN. Strangely, on NH, WM and SOU Alcos RS2/3s were LHF and Geeps SHF. On NW and SOU many units were dual control even extending in the era of low hood 2nd generation units. But NW and SOU had different ways to achieve that see previous posts on same subject. In the west both GN and WP had some early Geeps set up LHF. Virtually every other RR in the country preferred SHF. Remember, when railroads converted from steam to diesel in the 40s and 50s engineers were used to looking down a long steam loco boiler; and often even a LHF Geep or Alco provided a shorter and better view. But with the first diesels being cab 'A' units of all makes the better visibility caught on quickly. My favorite WM, even with it's Geeps set up SHF, started chopping the short hoods around 1964.

Southern did NOT have any dual controlled locomotives. N&W did, but not Southern. Southern used a "bi-directional" control stand which had it placed differently in the cab than normal control stands. This was intended to make it easier to run in both directions, and it did to a large degree, but depending on which way you were running sometimes it was still awkward. Some Southern locos (SD24, SD35, GP30, GP35 for example) were set up with the short hood as the front, but SD45, GP38, GP38-2, SD40, SD40-2 and others were set up to run long hood front with the engineer on the "right hand side." Regardless, short hood front engines often ran long hood forward and vice-versa.


JLinDE Wrote:
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> 4. On NW and SOU
> many units were dual control even extending in the
> era of low hood 2nd generation units.

Goes back to 1st gen diesels. Eastern RR's mostly ran LHF. GP-7's/9's Just about all road switchers type units. Western Roads ran SHF. This continued thru early 2nd gen units. Most notable were SOU, N&W, PC and EL. But still, all in all...running LHF is much more common on eastern roads. My observation...fwiw..

I believe the CRYX reefers go to Shearer's potato chip factory up off of Faircrest Avenue just south of Canton. Thanks for the tutorials people. Appreciate it. Wheeling and Lake Erie 227 (NS) goes to Bellevue while 237 (CSX) goes to Willard.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/17 04:50 by Forever-Railfan-45.

Rathole; you explained what I could not exactly remember from previous posts, that is why my next sentence says "But NW and SOU had different ways to achieve that.....etc. But my train logs and old slides show many SOU trains with long hood forward. In fact at the time I thought it was their preference. There must have been some long handles in those cabs? I have a SOU books but not read them a lot. Curiosity for me are the RS2 & RS3 units, SOU had quit a few of them considering they were primarily an EMD railroad. In the late 1950's my parents went from Texas to home grounds in Maryland to visit by way of New Orleans. I was an only child. Dad liked to drive mostly at night; and this was before Interstates in most areas. The old roads often followed highways. I was only 15 or 16 at the time but I was already thinking about logging trains. Which I unfortunately did not start in Texas. anyway, on an overnight trip thru Atlanta we followed in Many places the SOU main from Atlanta to DC. I distinctly remember overtaking a NB freight outside Atlanta with six T units (some green, some black) with 188 cars. I went to sleep but Dad drove on and we stopped in SW Charlotte next to the SOU main line. Dad did not mind accommodating my interest in trains. While he and Mom took a nap a SB train went by with five Alco RS', again some green, some black. The lead RS was LHF. I think the trailing one was SHF. Train had 137 cars.

SOU's RS's seemed to stay in the South, I never saw any except in Atlanta when I went to interview For a SOU drive. In Atlanta I saw RS's running SHF. The in other pics and articles. Since you might know, how were SOU's RS's setup?

Since I never ran or was even on a Southern RS2 or RS3, I had to refer to slides I got of them in Atlanta back in the 70's. I never saw them in Memphis where I worked but I'm sure at some point in their lives they must have made trips there. As you noted, the RS3 did seem to stay down in Georgia, at least toward the end of their careers. All the slides I have of them indicate they were set up long hood front (with engineer on right hand side), and designated that way with the "F" on the frame on the long end. But merely having the "F" on one end or the other didn't matter to Southern, as seen with my GP38 photo in Memphis running SHF although designated LHF. At least when the long hood was designated front, the control stand was on the right side, making it better for the engineer to see block signals on the right hand side of the track. As to the control stand on later model EMD and GE, they were the standard control stands for each manufacturer; they were just mounted in a different orientation - no "long handles," etc. I need to get photos of that set-up and post here for people who have never seen that arrangement. By the way, if you cannot see the "F" on the frame of a Southern locomotive, just look for which end the bell is mounted on. That will be the "F" end.

JLinDE Wrote:
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>> SOU's RS's seemed to stay in the South, I never
> saw any except in Atlanta when I went to interview
> For a SOU drive. In Atlanta I saw RS's running
> SHF. The in other pics and articles. Since you
> might know, how were SOU's RS's setup?

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