Dan Padova posted:RJR posted:There's a flip side. When the cab is in the middle, the engineer can't see much to the left of straight ahead.
I have often wondered about visibility in center cab locomotives. So, depending on the design of the carboy, I would presume the engineer could have a field of view from let's say about twenty feet in front of the loco to infinity. That would be in the case of locos like a GG1 or P5 modified. A Bi-Polar seems like the closest the engineer would be able to see something on the track would be much further than twenty feet.
But what about steam locomotives. From the small front window in the cab the engineer must look at the side of the boiler, which unlike the GG1 does not taper.
So how much did the engineer rely on sight and how much on signals ?
Unless there were/are cab signals, the Engineer and Fireman both rely on "sight", plus their familiarity with their territory. What everyone seems to lose sight of is, the engine crew does have great visibility, but anything within about 20 feet of the front pilot, is going to get run over anyway.
