Do all wide-cab engines have nose doors? (I hope wide-cab is the right term. I mean the kind of configuration you’d get if you bought a large brand new six-axle diesel today.)
I ask the question because a photo I saw shows a modern wide-cab unit seemingly without a nose door. It seem like it would be crazy not to have one.
Depends if there is a front “porch”
The Amtrak F40s did not have a nose door.
Some were modified for freight use by ading a porch and a door.
I was referring to freight units that have a front platform.
Looks like some may not have the window in the door.
Locomotives with the headlight in the nose would not have a nose door.
Yes they did have doors in their nose
https://www.railpictures.net/showimage.php?id=44500&key=6990197
I think that is probably what I saw, one with no window. Thanks.
The nose window has fallen out of favor. Crash worthiness, having a hole cut in the door, was one factor. The newer doors are also heavier and somewhat reinforced, making the placing of a window more difficult. Some older doors that had windows have had them removed and steel welded in place of the glass. (It’s harder to tell from the outside, for some reason the inside doesn’t get painted as nicely where the modification has been done.)
You used to be able to tell the difference between a GE and an EMD from the nose door placement. No longer can this be done. A few years ago, GE started using a heavier door. The worry was if the engine was laying on the engineer’s side, the door would be too heavy for the crew to push upward to open. Moving the door to the engineer’s side, like EMD, and the door would ‘fall’ open when laying on the engineer’s side. Unless it was sprung or otherwise impeded. If the engine was laying on the conductor’s side, it was thought the crew could climb out the back door behind the engineer.
I myself would prefer not having the engine laying on either of it’s sides, but that’s just me.
Jeff
I believe a main concern with the sight glass was that the window could fail in a door that otherwise remained intact and allow debris (I assume primarily fluids such as from a struck tanker truck) to enter the cab.
So that’s why GE’s nose door switched sides. I knew there had to be a reason.
As for the little window, CN never ordered any units with it, and I’ve never noticed any hardship from that. I really can’t think of a situation where it would be helpful.
The door window was a FRA mandate at one time. It was meant to let someone inside the cab see if the door was going to strike someone standing outside on the platform.
I believe the official FRA term for the little door window was “sight glass”, if I remember correctly what I’ve read before in FRA regulations.
With 2-man crews, and the engineer at the throttle, who exactly was the FRA expecting to be hanging out on the platform when the conductor opened the door?
Brakeman (although rare, some examples of the species still exist), utility man, conductor trainee, engineer trainee, qualifying conductor or engineer, manager, machinist, elextrician, or even a re-crew.
The crew has to get off the engine when they change out. Our rules require getting on or off on the field side (away from an adjacent track). If the field side is the same the door is in, you have to take turns and wait for the person ahead to get clear, including bags on the deck.
That little window came in handy for that.
Jeff
A trespasser with a weapon? (we operate in some pretty bad neighborhoods)
FYI,
End Cab Locomotives.
On certain End Cab locomotives the rear cab door was rehung so that it would open
OUTWARDS so that in the event of a collision it may have caused door as originally de
It’s not just you, Jeff; I am definitely with you on that matter (as well as on many others). I’m thankful that in my travels by rail the trains may have arrived late, but did arrive intact (except for the lounge car on one of my trips that had to be set out in Albuquerque because of a broken spring–no, I’m not that heavy
When we put together trains in the yard in Council Bluffs, often with the really large trains, we end up blocking crossings for quite a while. The really large ones are up the 12th street line in an older residential area. (My record is blocking all but one crossing in town while waiting for air to build up to do the final air test.)
Recently, a fellow engineer related his latest episode on the 12th st. line. It was late at night, about 1/2 way up the line, when a somewhat inebriated guy came up to the side of the engine and started ‘conversing’ with the engineer in a rather loud and profane way. He then proceeded to ‘relieve’ himself on the side of the locomotive.
Up to now, the engineer had been amused by this interaction with the public. Then this ‘gentleman’ decided to climb up on the front deck. The engineer went down and locked the inside door as the person poun
For the engineers and conductors out there:
How often, when your train is stopped, do “civilians” decide to use the front or rear decks as a way to get across to the other side?
You’d have to be pretty dumb to try this on the front deck of a lead unit. But all those other decks would be pretty inviting to an impatient pedestrian. To be honest, I could see myself doing this. But I do have some experience on trains.
[quote user=“jeffhergert”]
SD70Dude
Lithonia Operator
Leo_Ames
The door was a FRA mandate at one time. It was meant to let someone inside the cab see if the door was going to strike someone standing outside on the platform.
I believe the official FRA term for the little door window was “sight glass”, if I remember correctly what I’ve read before in FRA regulations.
With 2-man crews, and the engineer at the throttle, who exactly was the FRA expecting to be hanging out on the platform when the conductor opened the door?
A trespasser with a weapon? (we operate in some pretty bad neighborhoods)
When we put together trains in the yard in Council Bluffs, often with the really large trains, we end up blocking crossings for quite a while. The really large ones are up the 12th street line in an older residential area. (My record is blocking all but one crossing in town while waiting for air to build up to do the final air test.)
Recently, a fellow engineer related his latest episode on the 12th st. line. It was late at night, about 1/2 way up the line, when a somewhat inebriated guy came up to the side of the engine and started ‘conversing’ with the engineer in a rather loud and profane way. He then proceeded to ‘relieve’ himself on the side of the locomotive.