Not elephant ears, though.
http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/c420/C420_smoke_deflectors-L2alcastelli.jpg
http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/c420/C420_smoke_deflectors-L2alcastelli-2.jpg
I still can’t believe they delivered the first units with the air horns where they were! What you see in the picture is the relocation and even that was plenty loud…
Why the high hood design in the first place? Didn’t the design hamper the engineers sightlines?
Some had a steam generator in there.
No more than a steam engine did. In fact, if you look at some makes of First Generation diesels like Baldwins, Alco’s, and FM’s you’ll see the configuration of the locomotive is very similar to a steam locomotive’s, that is, cab in the back, all the machinery up front.
Here’s a Baldwin VO-1000 for example:
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1126744
Besides when some old-time engineers were asked about restricted sightlines the usual reply was, “No big deal, you can’t stop on a dime anyway!”
Check the sightlines from the Class 1 steam locomotives. Many carriers when purchasing the first generation of GP locomotives had them configured to run long hood forward - with nominally the same sightlines as the steam engines they were replacing. Other carriers orders their first generation GP’s to operate short hood forward. It wasn’t until EMD started selling the GP30’s in the early 60’s that low hoods on the short hood end operating forward became common place.
Some carriers converted there 1st generation GP’s to have a low hood for the operator on the short hood end, WM springs to mind. Some carriers (NW & SOU) ordered their 2nd generation GP’s to have high hoods on the short end because the low hood was a ‘extra cost option’ - they didn’t stop this practice until the high short hood became the ‘extra cost option’.
Opposed-piston was a great idea, I guess, until you had to change a “power assembly”, that is, a cylinder liner, the piston that goes in it and the connecting rod?
You have to just about take the whole engine apart? Must have made Fairbanks Morse
[quote user=“Paul Milenkovic”]
Overmod
Lithonia Operator
What is an OP?Here, opposed-piston engine. This has no cylinder head or valves; think of it as two conjugated inline engine blocks mounted together with their piston crowns facing each other, dished just enough to form a roughly lenticular combustion chamber at the point of nearest approach. The blocks have scavenge ports reasonably near BDC, with one for air and the other for exhaust; when the opposed pistons are nearly at the bottom of their strokes (they are not phased 180 degrees opposite, but within about 15 degrees of being so) the charge air displaces the products of combustion, and fills the cylinder with clean air just as the pistons start back up and cut off the ports. No valves, no valve train, all timing handled by very robust and strong spiral-bevel gearing between the two crankshafts. (In most locomotive practice the generator is driven only from the lower crank, with the scavenge blower or supercharger driven from the upper one – a vertical shaft conjugates the two for the remainder of power transfer.
It may have occurred to you by now that it would be nifty to do this with fork-and-blade V engines rather than mere inlines. And lo and behold! welcome to the Napier Deltic, developed for torpedo boats, put in perhaps the greatest and most iconic of British locomotives, and at the heart of one of Tree’s most favorite pieces of apparatus…
Opposed-piston was a great idea, I g
When I was first transferred to Baltimore in 1972 - the yard power for Baltimore Terminal was predominately FM’s. Sprayed oil all over every thing. A stack fire every now and again.
About high hoods. The original NS ( CLT = Norfolk ) received 3 diesels and cut the short hoods down for better crew visibility so the story goes. SOU RR took control of the original NS and prompltly put high hoods back on. Story was too many crews requesting the short hood units to lead when available ?
The original ALCo HH- units had the prime mover (531 or 539) mounted on top of the frame (bass acwards). Later prime movers like the 241 and 244 were slightly less tall and the engine sumps were down in the frame.
The high short hoods (starting with the RS-1, indeed had a steam generator in there, a few tried dynamic brakes in there (lead balloon), branchline mail/ company mail and a lot of radio gear (pre-transistor) showed-up there as well. Some tried to stuff extra brakies in there and added little windows.
The GR12 (EMD export model) had the dynamic brake located in the high hood.
Could you post a link to a photo of a road switcher, preferably a Geep, with windows in the high short hood? I’ve never seen that.
I can hear the other guys razzing that brakeman. “Hey, if we crash, you’ll be the first to know!”
Then there was Kennecott’s GP38s
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2675491
Would that be a medium-high short hood?
I believe they were little round windows, like small portholes.
https://akronrrclub.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/ns-l11-1-march-25-bellevue-x.jpg
https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4592/39349955452_2a3bcfb9db.jpg
You’ll see examples with these painted over but the circular rim still visible, and examples that appear to have oversized grommets with marker lights installed in them.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8f/56/44/8f5644f012310309acddd1c4e0131195.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/USA_RD0_152_NS_2882.jpg
Those aren’t windows. They are where class lights were supposed to go.
Only think I can think that is close is the GP9B
The window on the GP9B is for the benefit of the hostler when the unit is being moved in the shop area. The short hood on the Kennecott GP39-2 is higher than usual but also note the extended height of the cab.
What you think are windows are not. They are blanking plates to fill the holes previously used by Class lights - White for Extra Trains, Green for a following section of a scheduled train - Red for marker lights to denote the end of a train.
Abount 1990 all the Class 1’s changed their methods of operation to eliminated the Timetable & Train Orders form of operation and thus did away with Schedules and/or direction having any basis in setting the priority of trains. Once those changes were made, Class Lights ceased to have any purpose in operations. FRA Rules in general state that everything on a locomotive must be opera
one of the few modelling projects I ever wanted to entertain was a Southern SD-45, but the filling and putty sanding turned out to be beyond my talents
Just a short note from the GN and NP. The Northern Pacific ordered their early RS units with short nose forward, which cost them an extra $550.00.
The Great Northern ordered all their road switchers the long nose forward. The last ones were the GP20’s in the early 2000 series.
After the 1970 merger, I bid on and received a crappy relief job on the XGN side. One X-NP engineer (Farrell) hated the X-GN SD7’s because they ran long forward and he had a hard time using it in switching.
Ed Burns