Rusty Traque posted:SANTIAGOP23 posted:What's with those double side nose grabs on these units? Also, too bad these pilots are more appropriate for F3's.
There is no such thing as an F3 or F7 pilot. There were the so-called "passenger pilot" (the smooth one) and the "freight pilot" (the indented one.) The same applies for E7's 8's and 9's.
The railroads ordered whichever ones they wanted. The Santa Fe specified the freight pilot on their F-units, be they freight or passenger units.
For Santa Fe purists, only, the Company modified the EMD freight pilot on some units and did not on others. At Santa Fe, they were identified as "freight" and "passenger" pilots, although they were actually modified and unmodified EMD freight pilots.
The Santa Fe "freight pilot" was modified by constructing an indented area for the brake pipe and signal pipe hoses to the right of the coupler*, removing the stirrup and welding a triangle of sheet steel into the notch, so that the edge profile was straight. Then, a step which looked like a pedal (the same type used on ATSF steam pilots) was welded onto each side, presumably to make it easier for a Trainman to ride the leading end during switching movements. In my opinion, riding on the pilot of an F-unit modified or not, is an ergonomic nightmare and I am getting a backache just thinking about it. Anyway, Santa Fe applied the freight modifications to all of the blue and yellow F3/F7/F9 units and to the dual-service rednose bobtails 325 through 344. Bobtails 300 through 314 were passenger-only units, as were all the 4-unit F3/F7's 16 through 47, and they did not receive modified pilots.** The photo above shows a Santa Fe "passenger" EMD freight pilot.
And the pilot on the Atlas F7's is the correct type of pilot for the series 37 through 41.
* Santa Fe used dual brake pipe hoses on the front of its F-units, although the one on the left side of the coupler was the one normally used in freight service.
** Late in their lives, Santa Fe no longer worried about what kind of pilot was used on the F-units. Pilots were removed, repaired, and stockpiled for re-use, and the one at the front of the stockpile - "freight" or "passenger" - was applied in exchange for the damaged pilot.
