I was wondeing, since Southern always ran thier engines “backwards” how come you see so many pictures of them forwards?[%-)] Like the one in my signature.
SR did not always run thier locomotives “backwards”, as shown by your photo. Generally SR ran the locomotive in whatever direction it was sitting when assembled into a train. Many of SR’s hi short hood locomotives had the short end designated F (front).
Funny thing…it’s not backwards!
Strange yes, but when certain high nosed Southern units appeared to be running “backwards”, they were “officially” running “long hood forward”, since the engineer’s controls were on what is normally the fireman’s side. Basically for safety reasons since with head on collisions chances of survival were greatly increased. Those units had the “F” on the end of the long hood.
If I’m not mistaken, some units had “dual” setups…controls on both sides of the cab, making it easy for the engineer regardless what direction the unit was running in.
I vaguely remember, but I think that N&W also had some long hood forward units and that that newer locomotives after the NS merger came with the standard setup.
You can tell which end of a Southern Railway engine was the front quickly by looking for the bell as it was always on the “official” front of the locomotive. They kept the high short hood after the other railroads had gone to the short hood so they could run either end as front and not break the rules. The rules stated that if a locomotive had a full view across the cab (low nose) then that had to run in the forward direction. Any additional safety was an afterthought. As far as I know the SOU didn’t have any dual controls.
N&W ran all of their diesels long hood front until they acquired some short-hoods and low noses through mergers. The official reason was safety, but I’m willing to bet that the older engineers felt more comfortable with the ‘steam loco’ feel of having the cab at the rear. Considering the fact that Southern had the most conservative steam fleet in the country, some of the same thinking may have applied.
In the late 90s, I saw many N&W “low nose” GE units (Dash 4…7?) running long hood forward out of Roanoke.I am not much of a diesel guy but my job was right next to the main line just West of Bonsack. Got to see the new version of the Bonsack pusher (3 big diesels) a lot too. The only think I did not see running long hood forward was the wide cab stuff. I do not know when they quit for sure.