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Reply to "high hoods"

@wjstix posted:

When the low short-hood option came along around 1960, many railroads began running engines with the low short-hood in front, feeling the increased visibility was safer for the crew in the long run. However, Southern and N&W continued to run long-hood forward.

With all due respect and not wanting to offend anyone, this is not quite correct. It should be pointed out that the Southern Railroad's SD24's (delivered late '59) and also their GP30's and GP35's (delivered early to mid '60's) were configured with the short high hood forward. As Hot Water noted above, Southern's thinking before this was that this arrangement allowed for better visibility of the railroad right of way by the engine crews in the event the locomotive needed to be operated as a lead unit "backwards" over the road.

On a side note, Santa Fe is referenced by an industry publication of the time (1959) as pioneering the "low profile" or "3/4-hood" low, short hood which eventually became standard on most hood diesel locomotives. Santa Fe ordered both ALCO DL-600's and EMD SD24's with the new "low silhouette" short hoods, and the first ones were delivered in mid-1959.  Southern Pacific soon followed as a photograph reference depicts the "newest SP hood units" GP9's and ALCO DL-701's arriving  from their respective builders with the "chopped nose feature pioneered by Santa Fe" also in late 1959. 

C.J.

Last edited by GP40

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