Passenger Trains > Amtrak locomotives with windshield grilles

ANybody remember back in the late 70\'s when f40\'s had those windshiled grilles? (usually on the NE corridor)
What were they used for, and how come we don\'t see them anymore?

Those to me look so cool, for some reason, it makes the train seem meaner and faster.

ANy pics of those would be great!

The grilles were rock guards. The heathens around major metro areas on the old NYNH&H lines would often stone the trains as they went by. The grilles were used to protect the train crew from rocks and other objects that were thrown at the train.

Regards,

Denis F. Blake
Columbus, OH
TTHOTS

http://lib2.clark.cc.oh.us/amtrak/

Lots of photos there, especially old F40 and E60 pics.

~chris

aaah yes, the "Brick Filters". CRs and now MBTA\'s commuter locos also had them.

"Ghetto Bars." Yeah, the MBTA F40\'s still use them, and you can find photos even in recent train magazines.

They are still very necessary in MBTA territory, where they\'re known as "Ghetto Bars" or "Ghetto Grates." The local youth have been known to hang out on the highway bridges above the tracks and throw various hard/heavy objects at the trains, such as rocks, bricks, cinder blocks, shopping carts, etc.

It\'s not just the F40s, either. The T\'s GP40MCs have them, as do many of the cab control cars. I\'m sure it gives the engineer an extra sense of security.

The trick by the local hoodlums was to hang a brick by a rope off an overpass. With practice, they knew just the length rope to use to squarely hit the windshield. This same M.O. was used on the PATCO High Speed Line (South NJ to Phila) from the overhanging pedestrian walkway of the Ben Franklin Bridge (not at 100mph+, but the result was glass all over the operator). PATCO “solved” the problem by installing polycarbonite windshields (same as aircraft windshields) in it’s entire fleet, and patrolling the walkway with DRPA police on bicycles. This must be 20 years ago, but the cost for the windssshields then was about $600 each (times 96 times 2 plus 25 times 4 = $175,000 just for materials). I suspect Amtrak did a similar retrofit on its equipment.

Yup, we still have them here. All coachcabs have them, as do all locomotives, except the 3 work units and the 2 leased Amtrak units. They do add some protection, but when it\'s night, sometimes it is hard to see. Also, our latest problem with the "Ghetto grills" is birds. The dead birds become lodged into the grill, and well, no crew member is gonna touch them, that\'s BET\'s job. Ever seen a coach that has been on a train that got "rocked"??? NOT a pretty sight. If you see dents on coaches and locomotives, most of those are from rocks.

"Ghetto Grills" referred by crew members.

The Ghetto Grills were a nice temporary solution to a problem that railroads needed to reverse.
don\'t put engineers behind bars, beef up police patrols and school visits and put the juvenile delinquents behind bars.
a rock tru a window is still attempted murder but the railroads in past never realy tried to prosecute, that has changed now.

I think in the movie Disaster on The Coastliners there is a shot of one of the locomotives in the movie that have those rock gaurds across the windshield. Imagine not having those before better windshield technology came around? Traveling at 90 mph and some idiot tosses a huge rock or a brick at the windshield. Not a good thought.

Doug Forness

WOW!! You are the first person who has mentioned that movie, I loved that movie when I was a little kid, yeah, I remember those windshield grilles............in fact in one scene, you are in the cab and looking forward and can clearly see them.

(I mentioned that movie here one time but no one seemed to care)

I have the movie on tape the story line is really bad but the train shots make up for it.

Doug