Diesel locomotive cabs

At roughly 03/08/2003 11:42 pm, the person described as Charles Seyferlich stated:

The nose is part of the cab, surely? I thought they had a toilet and wash basin in and stuff like that.

Maybe they should be called 'wide bathrooms'... ;o)

whokid

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Pester me, why not: whokid at flywheelnetwork .co .uk

Actually, they don't have a washroom....just the porcelain throne, and usually a metal one at that. :-)

And THAT particular area in the nose isn't any bigger.

II'm thinking the reason for the extra nose width is extra room for more substantial collision posts, from what I've seen down in those noses.

Back in my railroad days we had two entirely different things that were called "Buttheads"

They were:........................ and..........................?

.............F>

Never been inside one, eh? I work for NS, so I see plenty of insides... It's more of what's on the INSIDE than what you see on the outside. There's a hell of a lot more room inside a widecab than a standard cab locomotive.

Nope...the bathroom is over on one side (usually the left hand side as facing the front window) rather than being in the middle, like it is with a standard cab setup. The bathroom is actually SMALLER in most wide cabs than it is in a lot of standard cab units

Tell that (the part about "you're not supposed to be running' into stuff in the first place") to all the ignorant fools in automobiles and tractor-trailers and other big trucks who run around crossing gates on a daily basis. It's a lot harder to stop a train than it is to NOT go around the gates, or dart across a non-gate protected crossing, in the first place.

If you want to get right down to it...the correct term is "Comfort Cab". And most people on the railroad don't refer to them as wide cabs, but rather as wide bodies...which would be a correct term, since the "body" of a conventional locomotive has a narrow body on the short hood end..whereas the newer units have the wide body on the short hood end. Of course, some railroads have the wide long hood end as well, such as CN.

Not so fast my friend...most locomotives do indeed have a wash basin in the bathroom (not a seperate washroom, but a fold down sink...some of the older locomotives have a fixed sink up above the urinal (and have the old fashioned "bag" style commode for "number two").

Wide cab/wide nose units have electronic equipment and other equipment on the side opposite the bathroom. Some have a hotplate down in the "hole" as well. Some locomotives have storage for the crew's gear in these areas, or toolboxes with common line of road repair tools and extra airhoses and such. I'm sure the "collision" factor plays a part in the design too (it was this reason that Southern always had the high short hood and ran most of their locomotives long hood forward).

Yeah, I agree....I grew up on Long Island, where the local railroad knew which way to point their Alco RS-3's and Century 420's!!!

Only problem is, tell that to the imbeciles who plant their asses, assets, automobiles, etc. on the railroad tracks!!

Sorry, but in units I have been on, there was never a wash basin, sink, or anything that resembled a device in which one could wash one's hands after taking care of business. Most of the units I was on in the early days of being on locomotives had just the throne in the corner of the high short hood and one had to contend with all the heat and vapors from the steam generator to use it. Believe me, you did your #2's before you left on a run; #1's could easily be taken care of

-- overboard. One road's units had just a dispenser for those scented handy-wipes!!

Common road repair tools? Oh, you mean the sledge hammer!! If something acts up you take the hammer, beat the s*it out of what acted up, so it HAD to be replaced next time it got near a shop! :-)

What railroad's units have you been on? Almost all the old Southern ;units had some kind of wash basin, most of the old NW units did, and many of the ex-Conrail units did as well. A lot of other roads have them too. Almost all the modern units have the fold down type sink in the bathroom (ahem...water closet...and it is a closet considering the tiny space)

Not a sledge hammer, but they do usually have a small metal hammer, a special wrench or two for changing air hoses. The air hoses themselves, and one or two other specialty tools. Then of course let's not forget either the drawhead straightening straps or chains that are on many units.

In the short hood of our export model EMDs, there is a stainless steel toilet bowl AND a wash basin! Unfortunately, there is also a battery box, a sand box, an electrical cabinet for the headlights, markers and number boards, plus the aforementioned equipment, a prodigious amount of air brake pipework associated with the vigilance control equipment, and the accompanying valves and gear, the equalising reservoir and it's pipework, and some other bits and bobs that I'm not 100% certain about.

There is also a 20 litre drum of Alfloc, another 20 litre drum of compressor oil, a metal bucket full of tools, another bucket full of train pipe and main reservoir hoses, multiple unit jumper cables, brake shoes, a tail rope, and more often that not an EOT device.

So if you do go to sleep on the throne and fall off, you won't fall far!

All the best,

Mark.

Hmmm, let's see . . . wide bathroom, wide cab, WC is a bathroom, Wide Cab could be shortened to WC . . . I think maybe we're already calling them wide bathrooms . . . and didn't even realize.

At least that's how my alleged mind thinks. Carry on . . .

"The CB&Q Guy"