It has dawned on me that my Chessie SD9s have the Chessie cat on the end of the long hood not the short hood… does this mean that they are set up to run long hood front?
In general (apart from the magic letter “F” on some locos) is it possible to tell which way round high-short hood locos are set up to run as front?
TIA
[8D]
Wal! Let’s see. Them kittys run with the “F” forward for front. Look along the side frame above the trucks and there should be an F somewhere donating the front end.
I dont know if it is always long hood forward, my B&O RS-1’s are long hood forward it probably will be the same with the early Chessie units. Those long hood forward engines were somewhat difficult in curves because you cannot see very well.
As far as I know if the Cat is front then that is the front. I dont recall seeing cats on both ends. Ive always liked the Chessie, but not on the Reading T1 PLEASE! LOL.
Other than the letter F, if you can see which way the control stand is facing, or if there is a distinctive modification such as a snowplow.
Other than that, there is no real guarantee.
Dave H.
If the post-ditch light era…if there are only ditch lights on one end, that end is the front. But the best, most reliable way is to look for the little F on the frame.
Nick
When the Seminole Gulf started operations in Florida they bought 7 former Chessie GP9s from CSX. Unit 571 was set up to run long-hood forward; 572 through 575 were short-hood forward; 576 and 577 were once equipped with steam generators, and were torpedo boats with the long hood forward.
To make matters worse it was possible to purchase a unit with two control stands.
Look for the little F.
TIA,
As said previously the only sure way to tell which end is the front is to find pictures of the paticular engine and either look at the orientation of the controls or look for the F on the side sills. I believe that that is also subject to change infrequently as some engines change which end was he front during heavy rebuilding programs. The F should be on most engines because it was mandated by the government. I do not know if this applies to private motive power or not.
Several railroads ran their long hoods forward as the workers felt safer that way after working steam engines with the long end in front of them. As diesels evolved there was fewer engines built with the long hood forward, and I am sure there are exceptions to this.
Just because a paticular model has an F at one end or the other does not make correct for a class of engines, to complicate matters the long hood front may be only one digit different than one with a short hood front. So find a prototype picture of your specific engine, and start looking. The other way is to run it the way you like it, because after all it is your railroad!
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR
This is true, but many units (especially on smaller Class 1 power and shortline engines) have ditch lights on the front and rear because they back up almost as much they go forward.
I’ve noticed something else…
where a loco has a 3 or 5 chime horn it looks like the higher number of chimes point toward what seems to be the front… as a “general rule”.
Does anyone know if this is correct… or not?
[8D]
Yes, typically true, Dave. Most railroads in the case of a 3 chime have 2 bells facing forward and one facing back, and a 5 chimer will have 3 facing forward and 2 facing back. The new ES44ACs and ES44DCs have a weird bell arangement, however. They use 5 chimers, but only one bell faces forward! How can that be safe?
Well, usually the B&O ran long hood forward, C&O always ran Geeps short hood forward once the chessie system came about I’d imagine that they still followed their respective traditions. Because I know the C&O geeps in Chessie paint still ran short forward. dunno about the B&O though
Hope this helps
As a general rule, the B&O only put the Chess-C on the “fronts” of their locomotives. Most geeps were ran long hood foreward. Of course the easiest to recognize for this was the torpedo boats. Haven’t seen one yet that wasn’t run long hood forward.
Matt