I briefly ran a gp7 in tourist service that was high short hood. We usually ran short hood forward but that was only the luck of the draw from delivery since we had no place to turn it anyway. I thought the view was okay but not certainly not great, and the only way to do grade crossing was either with a someone in the fireman's seat or a crew member flagging the crossing.
We later got a Gp11, low short hood. The view out the front was great! The biggest issue was It came with a speedometer, and that I was foolish enough to believe it worked. When I picked up the engine from the delivery yard to take to our usual storage area, as I started approaching the track rated speed limit based on the cab speedometer, the loco was rocking side to side so bad I was honestly worried it was going to tip over! My conductor/fireman wasn't thrilled either. I cut speed and braked gently til it settled down, and promptly went back to judging my speed by how fast the trees went past the window on the opposite side of the cab 
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