I’ve seen several examples of small “doghouses” on rear of large steam loco tenders, most notably on Pennsylvania equipment but I’ve never read what their purpose was. Obviously they served as a shelter but for which member of the crew and why were they necessary on just a small percentage of steam locos.
They were used for the forward brakeman, since the cab wasn’t big enough for the engineer, fireman, and brakeman. I’m not sure why they weren’t used on all tenders though.
Jason
Those was shelters for the head brakeman and was “steam” heated-some times and if it worked…Those was used on locomotives that lack the 3rd seat for the head brakeman.
This has bothered me for a while too. I understand the purpose, but why not all? I guess if you look at the cab of a PRR 2-8-0 it is significantly larger than an L1 2-8-2 or anything newer. That certainly would account for the lack of a doghouse on those engines. I guess the USRA style cab had the third seat as well. I Know N&W had doghouses, and have heard of one or two more but can’t recall. I’d be interested to learn who else had them.
Yet, some of Pennsy’s 2-8-0s did also have doghouses…
One of the purposes for the doghouse was to protect the head-end brakeman from the trolley wire under the catenary. Even with electrification of the lines east of Harrisburg, steam continued to operate (K4s in Jersey, L1s 2-8-2 helpers out of Thorndale, etc…) under the wires.
D&RGW narrow gauge K28s, K36s, and K37s also had doghouses, along with (if I remember correctly) some of the K27s.
Did they really still ride the doghouses under overhead power? [:O] If it was AC it would be dangerous to put it mildly. that stuff can reach out and hit you. We have a required safe working distance of 10’. Before anyone can work anywhere closer than this outside of a vehicle we have to get a certified isolation.
(I stress “outside of a vehicle” because, when you think about it anyone in a loco cab, caboose or passenger car will be closer than 10’… BUT the body of the car acts as a Farraday’s Cage" which will conduct electricity around them).
TIA [:)]
The only Rio Grande K27 that had a Doghouse was 453. Sometimes when a Steam engine is used in tourist train service the doghouse had a generator in it to run power for the passenger cars.
Yes, those engines assigned to the PRR’s electrified Eastern Region lines had wooden doghouses to discourage arcing between the tender and the overhead catenary. As for how often they were occupied, I don’t know. Then again, the era in which steam and electric ran together on the Pennsy was 1930-1957 (earlier if you count the stretch from Philadelphia to Paoli which was electrified for MU cars way back in the teens). Not exactly like today, where safety is a bigger issue.
The sum of the electric field vectors (total flux through the surface) in a Gaussian conducting surface is, as you point out, zero. But, if you body is touching that surface, the flux through YOU is not zero…
Quite a few railroads used them, though not on all of their steam locomotives. I know that Norfolk and Western was a big user of them, and in the Midwest, the Frisco used them on quite a few of their steam classes.
In the West, the Rio Grande used them on almost all of their steam classes, except the M-68 Northerns and the L-105 Challengers (both of which had all-weather cabs). The Western Pacific used them on several classes of their 2-8-2’s and their 2-6-6-2 ‘Baby Mallets’. Among other reasons, they were used as protection against the cold winters of the Rockies and the California Sierras (especially on WP’s “High Line”).
Tom