That doesn’t mean a thing if the unit has dual control stands.
It means more about how the unit is wired for MU operation as in the operation of headlights.
You model 17 years before Chessie and 7 years before C&O took control of the B&O and 14 years before B&O gain control of the WM.
So,you model closer then you think.
In my opinion, that is a mistake many modelers make, allowing their modeling to be influenced by things they now know will happen, but that at the time where not a foregone conclusion.
Sheldon
Even the real railroads are guilty of that. SPSF Kodachrome scheme, anyone?
–Randy
While I agree, one could not see change was in the air if railroads wished to survive the coming of the Trucking Industries Interstates…
Thank you all for the interesting discussion!
I visited the Fallen Flags site and saw enough photos of GN GP-7/9 running long-hood forward. Good enough for me - I will adjust the CV and run it that way.
Thanks again!
Mike
It was entirely up to the railroad. All GN road switchers with a high, short hood (GP-7/9, SD-7/9, RS-2/3 etc.) were set up long-nose forward. Their neighbor, Northern Pacific, ran most all their road switchers short-nose forward - even their RS-3s. Some railroads went model by model, buying RS-1s or RS-3s set up to run long-hood first, while buying GP-7s that were short-hood forward. As mentioned, there will be a small “F” at the front of the end the railroad designated as the front.
Model manufacturers generally wire up a diesel with whatever end they select to be the front, so the models usually come set up that way regardless of which body shell is on it. Decoder-equipped engines usually aren’t adjusted for direction if a particular railroad ran the other way around.
Just because a locomotive is designed to run one way or another doesn’t mean in practice that is how it will be used either. A few years back I saw a Union Pacific SD40N making the trip up a lightly used branchline (Cache Valley Subdivision) regularly longhood forward. It was a single unit, and the traffic was low enough for the week that they didn’t have a need to travel further down the line were the only wye was. So they ran long hood forward up the mainline to the branch, longhood the next few days as they went up the branch; and when they finally dropped of their cars they just ran short hood forward on the way out and back to the main. Most weeks they work the branch they do have two engines back to back so they can run short hood forward both ways, but as you can see in the photo above if traffic was really light it was just one engine long hood leading.
If I’m not mistaken, there was a similar odd arrangement regarding the Canadian Pacific’s early MLW road switchers (their answer to Geeps). The RS-10 and RS-18. They look nearly identical (from a non-rivet counter perspective), but the earlier RS-10 was long-hood forward, and the replacement RS-18 was short-hood forward. It was not just the “F” that was noticeable, it was the paint scheme they applied to each model, because the gray was applied to whichever was the front end. It was especially noticeable when the two different models operated together as a pair, as they often did in Maine and New England. It looked at first like they were “elephant style”, but were in fact back-to-back!
I grew up along a stub-end branchline with a run-around track at the end, so every day (or twice a day) a train came by going north and later went by going south. The turntable at the end of the line had been removed when steam was eliminated from the line in the late 1940’s. As with many railroads of the time, they had bought early diesels so they could work branchlines without needing to be turned, so the train normally had one diesel running forward going up and backwards going back - or vice versa.
Usual power was an FM H-10-44 or H-12-44, or Baldwin VO-1000 or DRS 6-6-1500. Even though they operated well in both directions, each had the long hood designated as the front.
Well, since this went away from the OP’s question about the GN and how they ran their GP9’s,
The CN local in my area covers about 65 miles of territory, usually, it’s cab forward going South, and long hood going North.
It’s a former IC GP40, just recently painted for CN.
Mike.