Jump to content
 

Chopped nose question..


Brisbane King

Recommended Posts

Ok, I know this probably seems like a really daft question, but whats generally inside of the short hood of a loco that has had its high short hood chopped? ? I know that locos often had toilets, steam generators or storage or things like that in their high short hoods, (that was obviously removed) and whats in the low short hood now? ? 

 

If nothing is in it, why don't they just remove the entire short hood? ? Its just something thats only occured to me now to ask. ? ? ? :rolleyes:

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Ok, I know this probably seems like a really daft question, but whats generally inside of the short hood of a loco that has had its high short hood chopped? ? I know that locos often had toilets, steam generators or storage or things like that in their high short hoods, (that was obviously removed) and whats in the low short hood now? ? 

 

If nothing is in it, why don't they just remove the entire short hood? ? Its just something thats only occured to me now to ask. ? ? ? :rolleyes:

I think collision protection is a key issue for countries where cornfield meets and crossing accidents are sadly far from unknown. I think you will find there are collision posts in the hood. Some railroads - N&W and Southern come to mind - bought all their early hood units to run long hood first, and specified high short hoods even when the trend was towards the better-visibility low hood. That trade-off of visibility against safety sounds quite attractive.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

As you say why not remove them completly just like ADM did with their GP at Clinton, Iowa.

 

 

That does look awful, if you ask me :blink: . But it might be a good idea for creating something a little out of the ordinary on a U.S. layout.

Link to post
Share on other sites

What's in a low short hood? All the same stuff in a high short hood except for a steam generator.

 

A partial list of things that may be in a low short hood:

sand box

collision posts

radios

cab signal equipment

fire extinguisher

distributed power controls

remote control systems

speed recoder equipment

toilet

first aid box

tools

track image recorder

 

In many modern engines there is a concern that all the electronics required to support the newer locomotive monitoring and signal systems will not fit into the short hood.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Then there's this - an RS-3 rebuilt with a 12 cylinder EMD 567 taken from a retired E unit:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/pc/pc9950bgs.jpg

 

I guess they found it a bit much, so the next one got half chopped:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/pc/pc9951ags.jpg

 

These were the only two of a total of 35 RS-3M's that got the noses modified in any way. The other 33 looked pretty much like 9963 here:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/pc/pc9963adc.jpg

 

Collectively these became known as DeWitt Geeps - the rebuild/repower work being done at Penn Central's ex New York Central DeWitt shops in Syracuse, NY.

 

And for all the effort, the rebuilds lasted about 7 years longer than the unrebuilt RS-3s...though some survive today on shortlines.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...