I was just wondering if anyone has seen any NS trains running long hood forward lately? I know they used to do it alot but haven’t seen any lately.
I live near the NS just East of Memphis TN. I had not seen long hood forwards for several years. In September of 2001, NS ran a single
SD-40 long hood forward eastbound, with a long empty intermodal bare table train. The unit was just out of the shop with a new paint job. With the usual NS great horn chiming, I was able to pace the train on the parallel road. This was a great show.
on the ns it is up to the engineer if he wants to run long hood out he can or he can turn the engine. myself i prefer to run long hood out except on wide body engines its to hard to see around the fins. and as far as duel control stand we have a few sd40 with duel stands otherwise they are all standard aar type control stands or desk top type engines
Robert,I live 2 houses down from the NS Sandusky main lie and watch alot of trains go by.Yes,they still run some long hood forward including afew of the wide cabs but, this doesn’t happen often.
Down here in TN typical power is two or three C40-9W’s usually either hooked two forward one back or one forward two back. I would say this is at least half the trains. also I see quite a few C40-8’s and C39-8’s as trailing units. I haven’t seen any going long hood forward in at least 5 or 6 years.
About two weeks ago I saw a NS, GP38-2, highnose running solo heading east through Springfield, Ohio. It was long nose forward.
Sunday morning, 1/6/02, the 48A had either an SD50 or 60 leading long hood forward, with a dash 9 trailing on NS’ Reading Line. The short hoods were facing each other. Intresting to see.
GP-38’S running long hood forward between Blacksburg SC and Shelby NC.And all the switching in the area.
Well it’s been about a month since I posted this question. So today I caught one with all three units running long hood forward. 1-12-02 train Q15 a North bound empty coal train at Athens,TN on the NS main between Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN. It suprised me to see. I had heard the dispatcher issue a track warrent to engine 9419. I set up to take my pictures at a grade crossing. I knew that it was a C40-9W, but when it rounded the bend and came into sight I had to do a double take because at first it looked like a old high short hood, until I saw the flared radiators.
So the question to ask is does anyone know why they do this? It’s not as common as it used to be but they stinn do it enough to order new units with dual control stands.
The number one reason I always hear, is the protection of the crew in the cab. If they hit something, they are further away from the impact point. This is similar to steam locomotive operation. Southern and NW both liked to do this in the past. The problem was the visibility around curves for the crew.
Another reason today, could be the lack of turntables to turn an engine. Many turntables have been removed in yards.
Seems to be coming back to operations on NS recently. It is great to see an old practice return to operations.
I live in NC, north of Raleigh, and there is a short NS branch that runs about a mile from my house and when I do see a train, it is usually Two or three SD40-2s with short nose forwards and the trailing units facing backwards.
Yes, crew saftey is/was the main reason for long hood forward operation. Crew cab locomotives with their designed saftey features of collision posts and cabs that are designed to come off in a head on collision beg the question of what happens when the collision is in reverse? Is the railroad liable for putting the crew at a greater risk of injury by defeating the designed saftey features? CSXT can tell you from first hand experience how well things work in a head on collision, but I have not heard of two long hood forward crew cabs meeting at speed.
If the facing of the lead engine is almost exclusively a safety/visibility decision, does that mean the facing of second or third engines is pretty much irrelevant? In other words, since there are no people in those other engines (right?), does it really matter which way they are facing?
Thanks for any insights.
the way the engines are facing is irrelevant anyways the lead engine if short hood forward the other engines will know what way to go from the signal it gets from the train line. in otherwords as far as sight goes the guys on the other engines are sleeping anyways so they wont care what is going on just caring if they will get woke up if the officials show up.
I see CSX mentioned. I was in Monroe, NC couple weeks before Christmas and saw hopper train going toward Charlotte, long hood, I heard the crew on the scanner and they where not happy. No wye or turntable in Monroe, nearest wye in Hamlet I believe.