Do steam locomotives have windshield wipers?
I have several model diesels, even the cheaper ones have windshield wipers. I have a very expensive 2-10-2 Steam engine model, that does not have them. Looking back at my admittedly limited experience with steam locomotives, I do not remember seeing windshield wipers.
Gabe
In my not-so-limited experience with steam locomotives, I’ve never seen them.
Maybe on the specialized ones like the SP cab forwards, but I’ve never seen one of those in the east.
Replying to a good question. I looked at several pics of SP cab forwards. No wipers.
How many times have you read about the ‘hogger’ leanin’ out the window, tryin’ to read the signals in the rain and/or fog? I’ve also seen pictures where the engine men have goggles.
So windshield wipers in those days would have been fitted on to foreheads, glasses, or goggles. Some engines had very poor forward vision from within the cab.
Art
Due to a big coverup, it is a little known fact that global warming caused rainfall that never existed during the steam age, thus forcing railroads to convert to diesels which could be equipped with windshield wipers.
Or maybe it was “We don’t need no stinkin’ windshield wipers!”
Or railroad management realized that the a new generation of engineers would be a bunch of softies unwilling to get their hair wet looking out the window to get signals.
Jay - remember… they had firemen, brakemen and conductors in those days - all for the convenience of the engineers, I hear.
But I do seem to remember that our '38 Buick and maybe even our Model A had them - and that was during steam time. So why wouldn’t they have had them?
Man, can you imagine doing that in a Hiawatha or a Pennsy T-1? The force of the rain drops would be the equivelant of rocks.
Gabe
Art…I’d go as far to imagine almost all steam engines had poor forward visibility except the cab forwards…Windshield wipers…They were machines too crude as far as operators comfort or convienence to have had anything like that.
And as for automobiles having those wipers way back when…Yes, they did…decades back…but early one’s were equipped with a directly connected crank handle on the inside to manually reach up and give the windshield a swipe with the manually operated gadget…
Goggles are a lot cheaper than windshield wipers, and a whole lot cheaper to maintain, too.
Real engineers don’t need windshield wipers. [;)]
I think that was it - in part due to the fact that most steam engines were from the years before lawsuits
(that’s a joke, sort of)
I realize this was a joke, but it is a common misconseption that lawsuits are somehow generally worse today than they were say in the 1930s’ steam era. As a matter of fact, railroads’ exposure, at least in terms of the initial finding of liability, was much much greater in 1930 than it is now.
For good and bad, tort reform and federal preemption law has really diminished what once was a cottage industry for plaintiffs lawyers.
Gabe
It is an interesting question.
No matter what it took, the engine crew had to catch signals, either lineside or from the men working on the ground.
I’ll never say that T&E jobs today are not hard, but they sure are much more comfortable than times past. I think of bitter cold or high heat with no AC, no radios, cabooses with little stoves for heat and windows for cool. If I was a locomotive engineer today, I sure wouldn’t complain about my job to some very oldtime engineer that never saw the inisde of a diesel. (Come to think of it, probably not too many of those folks with us.)
Some CNR Steam Locomotives used a Compressed-Air Jet to Clear Glass, that had a Small-Diameter Piece of Copper Tube Mounted Above the Outside of the Front Window on the Engineer’s Side.
By the 1930s, that’s generally true (although many states still followed contributory negligence - modern comparative negligence really didn’t start at the state level until the 1950s and custom still remained a viable defense to a negligence action into the 1940s) - especially since one of the biggest causes of railroad exposure to torts in the steam era was fires, a much lower danger now with diesel engines and railroads carried many passengers - both led to many lawsuits. The rail cars were a lot more dangerous and there were many more passengers riding trains (which also created big liability risks). Don’t forget that before FELA it was almost impossible for railroad employees (well, usually it was their widows) to sue their employers - in fact, it was the carnage on 19th century and early 20th century railroads which largely led to the modification of many common law tort rules - which increased corporate exposure to torts.
Americans have always been law suit happy, though.
A guess,
But even today, the wipers on locomotives use the old school vacuum piston set up, requiring a constant source of vacuum…which is easy to get off the intake manifold of a diesel or internal combustion engine.
Until recently, all the locomotives I have been on had the internal hand crank too, in case the vacuum piston failed or the system had a leak.
I am sure there is one, but can’t think of a constant source of vacuum on a steam locomotive…lots of pressure sources, but no vacuum…
Wipers are air operated, not vacuum. They are also supposed to have a handle for manual operation in case they won’t work with air supply due to broken/loose pipe,defective air push motor, valve, etc.
I’m with you, Gabe. I don’t recall seeing windshield wipers on any steam locomotives either. Unless we count the fingers on the engineer sweeping his goggles clean of locomotive byproducts…
In late 1950 I hired on the Illinois Central as a fireman. At that time ALL freight and switching was still handled by steam locomotives. I only held that job for a couple of years before deciding to go to college so I never got off the extra board and usually worked drag freights and an occasional local freight run or switching assignment. There were no wipers on our engines and no windshield to wipe unless you count the window in the gangways that led to the running boards through which both engineman and fireman had a view of the track and signals ahead and the stack exhaust. We rarely ran over 30 mph and while we both wore goggles over the brim of our caps I never remember any engineman I worked with ever actually using them and the few times I did myself were when I had to go down the cab steps in a thunderstorm or blizzard to catch hooped up train orders (though usually the head shack who rode on the seat box behind me caught our orders just to relieve the tedium of his job). The enginemen I worked with never failed to amaze me with their knowledge of the road. If inclement weather limited their ability to see ahead they had only to glance out the side cab window to know exactly where they were and when to watch for a whistle post or standing or temporary slow order they had learned about from reading the bulletin board at the start of the run.
We rarely hung out the cab window except to look BACK from time to time to check for a hot box or other defect in our train and in my case to impress and wave at a good looking girl waiting at a station or grade crossing. The IC’s 4-8-2 road engines all had stokers and the fireman’s job on those engines was really pretty easy. Mostly just watch the sight glass and boiler pressure, run the injector and stoker, throw a few scoops of coal onto low spots in the firebed, call out signals, look over our own and passing trains for any trouble and
Mark
Nice summary of working conditions in the days of steam.
I can confirm your comment that the hogger always knew where he was at. My experience on the IC’s suburban service led me to believe that if some one were calling the signals, many of the enginemen could have worked the job blindfolded. (Since the operators of the electric trains came off the Chicago District engineer’s roster calling them “motormen” might get you a royal cussing out.)
Interesting point about improving a working environment was made on a History Channel presentation last night. Speaking of the cabs now part of modern grain combines, a John Deere spokesman said that having a comfortable environment makes it easier for the operator to focus on getting the done properly. It sure can’t hurt attitudes. I doubt that Norfolk-Southern engine crews had kind thoughts about management when using plastic bags.
Jay