I have a new Athearn Genesis GP-9 (Great Northern) locomotive.
Were they all run short-hood foward, or was it a practice for some lines to run them either way? I prefer the look of long-hood forward, but notice that my DCC system apparently knows best and defaults to running the short-hood leading. (I have learned that can be changed in the appropriate CV value.)
New to the DCC world and curious about the prototype practice of how these older diesel locomotives were used?
Thanks!
Mike
The builder can set them up per the buyer’s preference. The GN selected long hood forward until the GP30 and U25B locomotives arrived.
My impression, from the always correct Internet, is that long hood forward was more popular and deemed safer. Not so sure about the later. They were several engines that put the engineer right out in front, like the F-3 and the BL-1.
However, except for cab forwards, engineers always had a view obstructed by a big steam boiler, so a forward long hood was just doing things they way they always had been done.
Look to see which end of the frame the “F” is painted on.
EMD designed the loco short hood forward, but one of the factory options was long hood forward, placing the engineers control stand on the other side in the other direction.
And I believe some were built with dual control stands rather than having the “third seat” on the firemans side of the cab.
Many railroads did opt for long hood forward on GP7’s and GP9’s, one needs to research their road of choice. I don’t have a list…
By the end of GP9 production, low short hoods were also an option, telling the future of road switcher design.
Long hood forward was just a brief minute in the history of road switchers.
When the GP20 came along in 1959, low short hood forward was standard equipment.
Sheldon
Not for GP9’s. They were mostly delivered short-hood front.
I think even the GP7’s were more often short-hood front. You might have to go back to the BL2 or even the NW5 to come up with a model where the long-hood front was more popular. For EMD.
Ed
The BL2 was short hood forward, all of them I believe. It was essentially an F3 with rear visablity, and its streamlined shape came from the fact that it was still built like an F unit, with a truss side wall that was the structure of the loco.
I think if we did the research, we would find that most GP7’s and GP9’s were built as EMD designed them, short hood forward. But the precentage of GP7’s built long hood forward may be pretty high, 30-40%.
GP9’s not nearly so many, but some of the long hood users still clung to that when ordering their GP9’s.
BL1 - never sold by EMD, it was the designation of the prototype of the BL2.
Sheldon
I tend to think more were long hood foorward - bvecause all of the roads surrounding my choice of prototype ran them long hood forward. I have to reverse the motor wires oon all my Proto Geeps because LL built them all to run short hood forward. They do have the F on the correct end for the Reading ones, but they have the crew facing the short hood. Most of the pictures of them when new seem to show long hood forward. Maybe the western roads did differently. Some carried over to second gen power, but most second gen power ran short hood forward. Southern stuck with their high short hood at least all the way up to the GP50.
–Randy
N&W and Southern Ry. were long hood (actually bi-directional) holdouts in later years:
http://trn.trains.com/railroads/ask-trains/2011/10/running-long-hood-forward
I remember seeing quite a few long-hood forward freights on the former Nickel Plate through Cleveland.
Cheers, Ed
More info:
For example, the B&O ordered its GP7’s long hood forward, including a group equiped with steam heat boilers for passenger service.
But by the time they ordered any GP9’s, they made the switch to short hood forward, at least for most of them.
Sheldon
Carefull! B&O had GP9s that was long hood foward and a lot of B&Os short hood forward operation Geep7/9s was former C&O GP7/9s that kept their C&O looks and numbers.
Check the B&O photos on fallenflags.org and RailPictures.net
Yes, I remembered some B&O GP9’s were long hood forward, and edited my post.
All C&O GP7’s and GP9’s were short hood forward. I can’t say what after merger paint schemes those locos might have had, I simply have no interest in that era. But from what I recall, all “Chessie” locos kept their original C&O, B&O or WM reporting marks.
Point remains, they changed from long to short forward pretty early on.
Sheldon
Actually there was Chessie(B&O) GP9s that operated LHF as well as the B&O LHF Geeps that was never painted into the Chessie colors…
Once again the Chessie roads was not merged.The mergers came under CSX.
Again, I know, but I don’t keep any track of those details, that era of railroading is not of much interest to me.
Never in the history of the B&O did they ever manage to get every piece of equipment painted in the “current” paint scheme. In fact, in 1965 when the C&O “came on the property” and started repainting passenger cars in blue and yellow, there were still solid blue B&O passenger cars and Pullman Green B&O passenger cars, and locos in every scheme the B&O had used since the first diesel showed up.
And again, that is just legal sematics, C&O “owned” the whole thing no matter how many corporations it was structured into. Much of that was left “seperate” at first because of taxes, locomotive liens, right of way grants and other legal issues that needed to expire before it made legal sense to make it one company.
Sheldon
The TH&B’s GP7s were all short hood forward…
…while their GP9s were all long hood forward (and stayed that way until CP Rail rebuilt them with low short hoods)…
The first TH&B diesel I saw was a GP7, and it seemed to me to be running backwards while pulling a train, since the short hood was on the front. Up until that time, all I’d seen was steam, and if it was pulling a train, the long end (boiler) was always forward (unless it was a switcher).
Wayne
I have the feeling more of 'em were run short hood forward for the better visibility, Mike, but it did vary from road to road, as the others have said. I do know the Norfolk and Western, once they reluctantly retired their steam fleet, opted for long hood forward, probably for the greater crew safety–and very likely because the cab crews liked the similarity to their beloved steam locos. Have fun!
Deano
P.S. If you didn’t know, the N&W probably would’ve stayed with steam for several more decades, as they mostly built 'em themselves. However, the manufacturers of stream accessories moved away from them when the market dried up and building air compressors, feedwater heaters, etc., just wasn’t practical.
Deano,If you study N&W and Southern photos on the two sites I mention you will see both N&W and Southern operated their Geeps in either direction.
GN appears to operated their Geeps in the same manner.
I have several C&O and B&O locomotive books as well as books on the Chessie,N&W,Southern,SCL and the PRR since these roads interest me…
I model the C&O, B&O ans WM - in 1954 long before Chessie, it is the Chessie era and beyond that does not interest me.
Sheldon
The only ones the Reading ran short hood forward were Trainmasters, because they were just too big to see anything. But many of those actually had dual controls, so you could see them both ways, though short hood forward was preferred. Reading had no GP-9s, just GP-7s, and they ran long hood forward. RS3’s and AS-16s also all ran long hood forward.
–Randy