What was the idea behind the wire guards that used to be on some Amtrak F40PH.
an example: http://hebners.net/amtrak/amtF200_229/amt200.jpg
What was the intended use, and why were they removed?
-Thanks
Youths in some urban areas consider it a sport to dangle objects such as concrete blocks on a rope from road bridges over railroad tracks. Others simply drop an object trying to time it so that an oncoming trains hits it in midair. The wire guards are a defense against that.
Beginning at some date which I can’t recall – maybe around 1990 – the glass in new engines is required to be impact resistant by Part 223 of the FRA regulations.
Ghetto Guards is a slang expression applied to thes grates on the windows. Boston, Bronx (NYC), Philadelphia, Baltimore, D.C.and Chicago were areas especially known for youths throwing virtually anything and everything at passing trains, often from overhead bridges and builidings. Increased during the 60’s and 70’s, thus the grating…
Amtrak was not the only ones with Ghetto Guards. Boston’s MBTA
A fair amount of NH power was equipped with the grilles. I remember seeing a picture of an EF-4 so equipped. This practice continued well after NH was absorbed by Penn Central. I do not recall any power in the Chicago area so equipped.
Window guards are still common and necessary on locomotives down here in Mexico. Here’s a shot of a Ferrosur locomotive in the yard at Veracruz.
Regards
Ed
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Out here in Oregon we put chain link fence on “all” overpasses, both rail and freeway overpasses. I remember about 15 years ago when a 7 lb rock went through a window of a tractor trailer a hit a young girl in the face. That’s when all the chain link started to go up. This was out in rural area, not an inner city.
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[(-D][(-D][(-D]
Actually pheasants were the real corker.
Bruce
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Paul’s right–nothing over the windshields in Chicagoland.
Not saying that there weren’t times where they might have been useful. I was very startled once by the coach window next to me shattering from a rock thrown by some kids who had no other form of entertainment. Had I been a White Sox scout…
I used to drive over an overpass everyday in college that had chain link fencing on it to keep people from throwing things on UP’s track. Once day I saw a couch on the tracks.
No guards over this a way either…There were days they would have helped though. I’ve had all manner of “interesting” items fall on my locomotive. The weirdest was the toilet.
Nick
If you see someone by the tracks that looks like they are up to no good, just call it in. As railfans we should do our part to prevent people from vandalizing trains.
It’s interesting, the grates were removed when one of those RDC’s was assigned to the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Division.
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