Norfolk & Western went to short hood units in the early 1970’s with orders for SD40-2s(although the first order of these was high hood) and U30Cs. They already rostered a fair number of low hood units obtained through mergers (mostly from WABASH and NICKEL PLATE).
IINM, all of their road locomotives were set up for bidirectional running (except perhaps for some of those units from the merger)
Southern kept ordering high noses right until the NS merger…
I wonder if what finally killed off the high short hoods and long hoods forward operation was a combination of: 1) high short hoods becoming extra-cost ‘option’ items, instead of ‘standard’ (can’t you just see the auto manufacturer influence at work here ? [:-,] ); 2) maybe an added cost for having to design a variation to have the control stand on the proper side for running long-hood forward; and/ or, 3) the extra cost for dual control stands for bi-directional running ?
And/ or, about 20 years experience with those low short hoods from the NKP, Wabash, and maybe ‘run-through’ diesels from other roads that had them, might have finally persuaded these guys that there wasn’t any compelling performance or safety reason to continue to order them and pay that extra money just to maintain their non-conformist and individualistic nature in this regard . . . [:-^] oltmannd noted over a year ago in another thread to the effect that NS tends to march to its own drummer even when other railroads think they’re right, and sometimes even when they are right . . . [swg]