I cant really find a side by side picture, but how come a GP60M or DD40AX front looks less tall then a more current EMD widecab? Aside from the side tapering in, is it really shorter in height?
Thanks! [8D]
The proportions of the new cab on the SD70ACe and SD70M-2 are different to those on the FP45 and susequent units. On the FP45 and DDA40X the sides didn’t taper. This taper was introduced on the SD60.
The new cab roof is flatter (the angle on the sides is less, and the cab windows are higher (the space for the number boards is much less, resulting in them projecting above the roof line.) Thus the cab floor is probably higher, and the nose below the windows will be higher (as well as just uglier).
Peter
Peter, good to see you posting, as always, with good info.
In thinking about your last sentence, that new nose does take some getting used to! It is better for crews. Appearance-wise I have said “Yuck” as well, but then again I still think that, overall, they’re more attractive than the traditional EMD Spartan Cabs that have been around for decades.
I know this may sound a little goofy, but in looking at photos, that weird nose does seem to give the locomotive sort of a " tough, muslebound image" of boxy, no nonsense horsepower. (Like the muscle cars of the mid-1960s)
Cheers and High Greens! [:D][8D] [8D]
Antonio,
I’m sure we will get used to them.
I recall seeing a photo of a styling model of the FP45 in Santa Fe colours prepared before they built the locomotive, to ensure that it looked the way the customer wanted.
I don’t believe that was done for the SD70ACe.
In fact, the matching of the angles on the roof and the nose of the FP45 gave it a continuity missing in other designs.
It seems the Australian SD70ACe units will have the so-called teardrop windows like those on an FP45, and will have the numberboards on the nose, but that doesn’t improve it as much as I hoped.
Peter
The tear drop windshield is another feature that I’ll miss. These new EMD wide cab winshields look almost identical to those on the GE units.
aw cmon, man. Spartan Cabs were the best and, to me, the most trainlike of all. i personally like the new cab style. the nose doesnt look ugly. it looks ugly if it has headlights in it. ick.
i think GP60Ms have different noses than the DDA40X entirely. i believe DDA40Xs have the same cabs as F45s and GP60Ms have cabs similar to SD60Ms. not sure of the geep came before the SD in terms of which got the widenose cab at first
Wow,
This is an old thread!
The BHP Billiton SD70 ACe units don’t have teardrop windows, sadly! I went right across the country last month to look at them, maybe 5000 miles away. All the Australian domestic GEs, Dash9-44CWs with Pilbara Rail and AC6000s with BHP Billiton have the teardrop windows (as do Canadian National’s later GE units).
I’m pretty sure that the SD60 was the first EMD with the later version of the wide nose cab, because the first of these had three windows rather than the two. The GP60M might have been the first with the teardrop windows when they were reintroduced.
I have heard it said that EMD made the SD70 M-2/ACe windows interchangeable with GE windows.
Having been in the cab of a Pilbara Rail Dash9 with teardrop widows, it does improve the close up visibility from the control stand.
M636C
Almost identical? Well you can tell the difference by a mile. To me cab is a lot prettier than GE cabs
No not the cabs, just the windshields - the forward facing glass on GE and EMD cabs is the same, so only one type of (expensive impact resistant) glass is needed as a spare. That is why EMD gave up the teardrop windscreens.
But as far as appearance goes, I like the old SD 70M cab best, then the GE with teardrop windows (CN and Australia) then the standard GE cab and last the SD70 ACe, although the Australian ones with nose mounted number boards are slightly ahead of the standard.
The UP “SP Heritage” SD70 ACe looks good despite its cab shape, however.
M636C
yea the glass is probably the same, but the windows are a little less rounded, and they are placed differently, and the cab and the nose make it look compleatly different. I think she is a beauty
Thanks Pete, you beat me to the post as I was referring to the windshields.
I know it will take a while, but I think the new noses on the EMDs will grow on me…slowly.