In America we drive the car/truck from the left side,pilots fly the plane from the left side, boats are operated from the right side, why was it decided that a locomotive engineer would operate from the right side?
I was wondering that myself, there’s bound to be a good reason for it…
Perhaps something to do with the way steam engines were originally made or something?
I’d like to know as well.
…How about the signals being originally installed on the right side of the ROW…
It’s not signals; right-hand operation on double track predates the invention of the signal by at least 30 years.
Could it have anything to do with the fact that most people are right handed? This may have been found to be the best location dating back to the earliest locomotives. Keep in mind that the fireman needs room to do his job.
Mark, I see why you are saying that it is not the signals, that is a chicken and egg argument. The engineer was already sitting on the right side of the cab, when signals were invented. The signals were placed on the right side of the track in most cases.
What about the Union Pacific, didn’t they run left hand main? The cabs on their locomotives were engineer right side, correct?[%-)][%-)]
That would be quite a breeze in your face, if you were the engineer with your window open, when two trains passed at 120 MPH velocity difference.
It’s probably because platforms and loading docks were built to the right side of the rails. An engineer would have a pretty rough time gauging where to stop if he’s on the far side of the train from the platform. Just a guess…
Erik[banghead]
Hmmmmm Erik, I’m not so sure about this theory. For every example that you can show me that is on the RIGHT side, I can show you one on the WRONG SIDE, just turn the engine around, “RIGHT”?[:D][banghead][%-)][swg][swg][swg]
Guys,
Here in Australia, as some of you will know, we drive on the opposite side of the road, and sit on the opposite (right) side of the car, and yes the trains run on the other track and locomotive controls are on the left side.
HOWEVER (comma) our steam locomotives were originally driven on the right side, and this was not changed until about 1900 or a bit later, and the reason for the change then was to see the signals (on the left side) more clearly.
But our early locomotives came from England, where they must also have driven on the right although their signals were on the left as are ours. So it must go back to the 1830s in the very beginning.
Peter
Here it is or at least the my stab at it:
The Tacondaroga (if I spelled it correctly) wagon was the wagon that helped settle the west. The controls for the wagon (brakes, reigns) where on the left hand side so it was easier to pass oncoming wagons on the left side vs the British method of passing on the right side. The first steam engines where from British plans and/or influence. The British did not use the popular Tacondaroga wagon, hence the controls where on the right.
I’ve poked through my library looking for a definitive statement and haven’t found one. So, here at least are some possibilities.
All early U.S. locomotives of which I found illustrations last night show the controls on the right-hand side. The valve settings (the critical control) are direct mechanical linkages located outside of the driving wheels, which places them on the very outside of the locomotive. The choice, then, is to place them on the far left outside or the far right outside, and since most people are right-handed, presumably the early designers did what seemed intuitively obvious and chose right-handed. (What would have happened if Trevethick et al. were left-handed)?
Once double-track became necessary for traffic conditions, the logical thing to do is to “hand” the tracks, one for eastward, the other for westward traffic. But in itself the right-hand locomotive doesn’t require you to have right-hand traffic, and a few railroads, notably C&NW and portions of the Santa Fe, chose left-hand.
However, because stations are to the outside of the tracks, right-hand locomotives make it easier to have right-hand direction. That allows the engineer to easily receive a signal from the conductor on the platform (the time-honored highball), to easily pick-up train orders from an operator standing on the platform, and provides him with better visibility of the train-order semaphore or passengers waiting on the platform as his train approaches. The fireman, one would hope, has his head down attending to his fire, and is not idly gazing at the passing scenery.
At a later date, signaling appears, first in interlockings and later automatic block signals. Again, as a simple field-side mast placed to the outside of the track (unless you want to spread the track centers for clearance) is the cheapest solution, right-hand operation gives a better view. Otherwise you have to put your signals on signal bridges to place it where the engineer can see it. It doesn
I cannot go with the right handed theory. If your head is hanging out the right side window and you have to turn a valve which hand you going to use?Also on modern locomotives they have a clipboard mounted on the console, by looking at the location a right handed engineer would have to get up out of the chair to write on the clip board.
This is true, but on early locomotives there was no window, and no cab at all. Nor were there any valves to turn, but rather just a throttle lever and a valve lever (or reversing lever). You stood on a platform at the back of the locomotive and looked straight ahead into the breeze, eyes smarting from the wood smoke washing over you. Your right hand rested naturally on the reversing lever (the Johnson bar).
You’re correct, later on, if you are peering out the cab window, now your body has shifted to the outside of the controls, and now your left hand is on the throttle or on the Johnson bar, and that’s what most photographs indicate. But by that time the right-hand orientation apparently had already been established as standard.
Consider also that most right-handed people are also right-eye dominant (I certainly am). That favors right-hand location of the engineer as well, if you’re going to be looking past a long boiler. I don’t know if people thought about this in detail, but if one was building a steam locomotive, and wondered which side to put the controls on, intuitively I think they would put them on the right-hand side, unless they were left-handed and left-eye dominant.
I’m not following you on the clipboard reference. Most engineers don’t have to write anything down en route, unless it’s to copy a track warrant or Form A or Form B restriction. In two-man operation, the warrant or track bulletin instruction is copied by the conductor or assistant engineer if the train is moving, as operating rules on most railroads require the train to be stopped if the engineer is to copy an authority or restriction in writing. (A major source of delay for one-man Amtrak trains, by the way.)
Thinking about this, if one was to do it all over again, and could choose either side, I think I’d still go for the right-hand side if there is any sort of nose to look around. If the locomotive was blunt-ended, and had no switching to do en route, and had no platforms
I had always thought that the British used the left side and that the right side was just a North American thing.
Another interesting thing to mention is that on vintage clockwork wind-up toy trains, the side that the keyhole is placed on the locomotive varies in the same way. Ones made in North America had it on the right side and British/European made ones had it on the left side.
It’s another one of these which colour is the color things isn’t it.
In the UK they run on the left, and any steam engine I’ve ever worked on has had the drivers controls on the left, and so do multiple units (Budd car type things) where there is an interconnecting gangway.
I was in the National Railway Museum last week and I am sure that The Rocket was driven from the left hand side as well.
Hugh: As did some American locomotives. As near as I can tell, the John Bull was left-hand operated.
Next week, I’ll see if I can get one of the experts to answer this. Now I’m curious, too!
I wonder if It might have to do with the engineer being on the oppisite side of the cab when trains pass for some sort of saftey reason[?][?] I don’t know for sure, its just a guess.
Noah
Guys,
I thought I might check my facts on Australian steam locomotives, and I find that the NSW Vulcan Foundry “H” class 4-4-0 of 1887 was right hand drive, but the 1892 Beyer Peacock “P” class 4-6-0 of 1892 was built as left hand drive. This was a bit earlier than I had indicated. Baldwin locomotives purchased about this time for use in NSW were right hand drive, however.
As to British locomotives, the side may have varied from one railway to another, but the London and North Eastern Railway class A1, including the well known 4472 “Flying Scotsman” were initially built as right hand drive. So were the other LNER contemporary “pacific” type locomotives, the class A2 designed by Sir Vincent Raven, suggesting that both the Great Northern and North Eastern railways used right hand drive at the time of the grouping in 1923.
It appears that the later Gresley locomotives of class A3, with higher pressure boilers, were built with left hand drive from about 1928. However, some locomotives built with right hand drive retained this feature until at least 1951, following nationalization of British Railways, even if they had been rebuilt with the higher pressure boilers. “Flying Scotsman” had been rebuilt before its withdrawal for preservation, and had left hand drive during its visit to the USA.
Peter
Are you trying to help us find the answer, or confuse us more?? [8)][?][?][:D]
macguy,
I’m trying to help find an answer!
But you won’t find the right answer by assuming that “all British locomotives were left hand drive” which is clearly not correct.
The reason British locomotives changed over (those that needed to), was for better sighting of signals, on the left in Britain. This was the same reason for the change in Australia. This was not a consideration in the USA, since right hand drive was already the correct side.
But the fact that locomotives were built in England with right hand drive until the mid 1920s means something, even if it was just following a tradition that existed at that time.
I’m sorry if the previous post seemed confusing, but the point was relatively clear to me, even if I hadn’t expressed it well.
Peter
Hey Guys!
Maybe this question is a “little ringer”.
Most of you likely saw the 1970s version of the hit movie “The Silver Streak” with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.
Did any of you notice that the engineer is driving the EMD F unit, from the LEFT SIDE? You could see the control stand also. I wondered about this as of course the so called “AMROAD” train is actually a CANADIAN PACIFIC passenger train. Unless I’m mistaken, as far as I’ve seen CP and CN units are operated from the right side.
Any thoughts on this??