DD40X why dose it have an air gap in the middle of the long hood??Glenbob

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I have had this burning question for days know

2

Well, if you were the engine service and maintenance guys, or the road crew,. would you want to walk all the way around that thing every time you needed to get to the other side?
There was no real need to enclose the entire hood, the diesels were in their own hoods, and it would have cost more the fabricate doors and the support structure there…so leaving it open solves two problems at once.
Ed

3

Thanks ED i was wodering if there might be some other design reason? any body else got an idea?

4

Ed nailed it.Each engine has a seperate hood,with a walkway in between[:)].
This was only on the EMDs.On the U50s,and C855s one had a looooong walk around the entire unit.

5

Ed’s right on the money, their just too long to be walking all the way around all the time.
Randy

6

For a little hidey hole to do a little drinky drinky…

Adrianspeeder

7

The DD40X was created so that the model railroad folks would want an HO scale version of one, even though like the T1 PRR steam locomotive, only a handful were created for only one railroad for only a narrow part of that railorad system and only operated over a narrow time in history, and like the T1, the model is too long and has wheels on too long a rigid wheelbase to function on any model railroad that fits in the basement of any person whose spouse will put up with.

8

Oh, and the air gap was created to make it hard to fit an Athearn drive!

9

The best answer so far came from the operators manual ;;;the start controls are located inside the gap glennbob