I’ve always known of their existance, both my railroads (ATSF, PRR) had them on their E and F units. But I never understood how they could possibly come into use.
Most lift rings are on the top of the engine, so they could be lifted up in the shops. How in the heck would these come into use? There’s no way they lifted the engine to the point where they were nose up! Were they for pulling engines out of a ditch…? How often would that have to be for them to install these hooks?
There were also lift rings on the rear, sometimes on either side of the rear door. Its just they aren’t as visible and the end of E units isn’t photographed that much.
The lift rings on top of the locomotives are for lifting access panels or sub-assemblies, not the entire locomotive.
The big nose lift rings on the front of some E/F Units, along with the ones in the rear might be able to lift the entire locomotive, but an expert will need to verify.
The early deliveries of EMD E7 and F3 locomotives did not have nose “lift horns” but were subsequently applied between 9-49 and 11-1953. EMD did not like the idea and showed concern, especially with the longer E7 units that the crumple zone behind the cab could possibly be damaged by lifting by the nose.
EMD recommended lifting by the bolster jacking pads but the PRR 150 ton cranes could only reach in about five-feet over the nose of a cab unit. The lift horns were soon developed. EMD applied them to locomotives delivered after January, 1949 and noted that they were a PRR design thus, presumably, assuming no liability if they failed for any reason.
Far from being any expert but from what I gather PRR only permitted a lift at one end at a time using the lift lugs.
I didn’t mean for you to infer this was a PRR “development” rather a modification to the EMD design (lifting pads at the truck bolster) for lifting a locomotive. Railroad engineering departments loved producing drawings by the carload. It was their forte so the existence of the attached drawing doesn’t necessarily make it a PRR design but simply PRR’s “approved method” for having the ability to lift in the field using available equipment.
There was considerable correspondance between PRR and EMD in regards to this before settling on an agreeable design. EMD was especially concerned about stress to the “crumple zone” behind the cab.
Looks like somebody took an unpaid vacation…that’s an example of what an old head once called “damn loose railroadin”. Here’s the story over on Classic Trains
