Southern Locomotive's Noses

[minernut333]

Looking on Railroad Picture Archives, I have noticed that southern had EMD's with a nose that goes on a GP 7 or 9. Why did Southern have this type of nose for most of it's EMD roster?

[SD80MAC]

Southern ordered all of their locomotives with high short hoods, as did N&W for a time. Since Southern (and N&W) had all of their locomotives set up with the long hood end as the front, there was little reason to have the by then standard low short hood since that was technically the "rear" of the engine. There is great debate as to why the Southern ordered their engines with high short hoods for as long as they did, but the best answer I've heard is basically "that's how they always did it".

[cbehr91]

N&W stopped after the mid 70s, southern was that way until the NS merger; they had high hood GP50s and B30-7s. But both railroads and NS into the 90s continued to designate the long hood as the "front" of the locomotive

[BnOEngr]

Southern SD35s were SHF. IIRC the SD24s were too.

[hoborich]

I believe Southern ran their geeps long hood forward for crew safety, in the event of a crash.

[TrainWatcher]

I believe Southern ran their geeps long hood forward for crew safety, in the event of a crash.

I have heard of that, also I heard it kept the cab cooler as it was hot down south, and also, the old steam heads on the Southern liked it that way, and there was some discussion when the SOU placed their original orders.

[Ypsi]

Kept the cab cool? I do not see how direction of the locomotive would make a major difference in cab temperature

[AARR]

There was an article in Trains Magazine why they ordered engines with long hood forward operation.

Due to the coal field activities they operated trains backwards as often as they did forward. The company decided it was easier to operate the short hood when going backward do to the angle the engineer would have to turn to see. When going forward it was simple enough for the engineer to face their normal direction.

Several engineers have confirmed this is why they committed to the practice for so many years.

And that my friends is the rest of the story

[legostudios34]

The Southern locomotives had dual control stands. So although the long end was designated as the front, they could easily run both directions. I've heard (unconfirmed) this was to save money on putting wyes or turntables at terminals.

[BnOEngr]

Not all of them had dual control stands...

[redcrumbox]

The Southern locomotives had dual control stands.

I have read that no Southern units ever had dual control stands. Southern units that were designated LHF had the stand parallel to the cab sides. FWIW, Norfolk & Western did had dual control stands.

This vid shows the stand parallel to the cab sides.

http://youtu.be/9IABM8UPplY

[cr6903]

I haven't been in a lot of cabs, but the two Southern (ordered by Southern, NS by this time) units I have been in both had dual control stands in them, and both were designated Long Hood Forward.