Do any other railroads besides NS still run high hood locomotives and if so which ones.
I can’t give you an exact number, but quite a few regionals and shortlines still run high hoods, some EMD and some ALCOs. They’re not all gone yet!
Quite a few of the cast-off high hood ex NS GP38-2’s haven’t received chopped noses for their new owners.
The Wheeling & Lake Erie keeps 10 high hood GP35’s of Southern/Norfolk Southern ancestory active, as well as 5 former NS GP38-2’s bought at an auction several years ago when NS started trimming their fleet of that model. They seem happy to keep them rolling as-is and don’t chop the nose even when they rebuild one.
When the NS fleet disappears, I suspect the W&LE will be the last big gathering of such locomotives with other “fleets” probably able to have their units counted on the fingers of one hand, for the numerous short lines across the country that still roster active high hood GP’ and SD’s (I think active high hood GE’s are extinct now, with the end of the U23B era at Georgia Central).
NS could be at it for a while yet though. No sign of intentions to retire their final 10 high hood SD40-2’s, which remain active with no members stored at the same time as recabbed examples have gone up for auction or been stored. And of their 60 or so GP38-2’s left with high hoods, there doesn’t appear to be any strategic plan to prioritize those for elimination.
Recently recabbed GP38-2’s and factory built short nose GP38-2’s seem just as likely to be selected for auction as high hoods are. So apparently mechanical condition and the recent history of failures for a unit is all they look at when deciding which GP38-2’s to let go. Still, they’re obviously fading and won’t be around for much longer.
I will always prefer high-hood road-switchers. It’s sad they’re getting scarce. But I bet in ten years a few will still be in regular service. Probably not much beyond that, except perhaps on tourist railroads.
Do most of them get converted to run short hood forward when they get new owners?
Delaware Lackawanna has some high hood Alco locomotives still earning their keep.
I’m not sure I understand your question.
To my knowledge, most high-hood units were set up to run short hood forward when they were built. Southern Railway was an exception (and there must have been others) in that they ordered their engines configured long hood forward; I assume this was for added crew protection in a collision. I was always a big SOU fan, but I’ve always preferred engines running short hood forward, and that goes back to long before low hoods even existed.
(As far as I know, NS no longer prefers to run long hood forward.)
To me, a low-hood unit leading a train long hood forward is very unattractive. Just don’t look right.
Thanks for the link. I wish DL had some high-hood Century units; I love the look of them.
Apparently Southern and N&W ran long-hood forward by agreement with the BLE, though their high-hood units were equipped with dual controls so the engineer could sit on the right-hand side in either direction of operation. The rationale was additional protection for the crew in the event of a grade crossing accident.
Greenville and Western has these pristine high hoods:
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/744529/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/744498/
Falls Road Railroad runs this RS-11:
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/742961/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/741369/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/735266/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/736111/
Ontario Midland runs these two ALCOs:
I remeber BN maybe CBQ had dome GP9s with dual controls. I agree I always was impressed with the long hood lead.
Technically, they do. 
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4683603
Alas though, she’s only a parts unit.
Love those Ontario Midland shots.
The RS-11 is my all-time favorite road-switcher.
What engines were the last ones offered with high short hoods, by EMD, Alco, GE (if any), FM, and whoever else?
Among Alco’s Century series, I feel that only the C420 looked good with a high nose. The high nose on the C628 and C630 was too short in proportion to the length of the locomotive.
Some had dual controls - many just had one stand (although it was set up paralel to the rails to make it easier to use both ways).
Just anecdotal - but several engines that I’ve run that had their control stands moved to the short hood side - the control stand is in the middle of the cab (almost). You have to have 6’ long arms to run and look out the side window.
I concur, it looks downright weird!
Short (high) hood forward or long hood forward, what looks better? Personal taste of course, but I think it depends on the unit. GP7’s or GP9’s look good either way as far as I’m concerned, Alco’s RS1 through RS3’s look better long hood forward. But that’s just me.
BN had 8 ex-Q GP’s and 51 ex-Q SD9’s with dual controls. I believe those were the only dual control locomotives on the BN.
The number range for the Geeps was 1956-1971, for the SD’s 6127-6204.
They sometimes had the diagonal white stripes on both ends, and sometimes not.
Running a dual control SD9 must have been most pleasant.
Ed
Zug, EMD probably had both Gumby and Stretch Armstrong on the payroll as test engineers back in the day!
These were “aftermarket” upgrades.