SD-35 Direction of Travel

OldSailor spake thus:

A 35? That's got to be short hood forward, doesn't it? I mean, hadn't engineers stopped pretending they were running steam locos by then?

I think N&W bought them with high nose hoods and ran them long end forward, most everyone else ran them short end forward.

Bob

Every railroad except the Southern ran engines short hood foreword. Here is a pic of a Southern train with a SD-35 in the lead.

The locos can be run with either end forward. With the exception of the N&W, the engine controls were placed so that the engineer sits on the right side of the loco when the loco is running short end first. I do believe that N&W is also the only road that had high hooded locos so that makes it kind of simple as the only high hood locos that you can get are the expensive brass ones which you probably don't own.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

Don't sweat it about the brass. Atlas O, HO, and N scale SD35's are available with high short hoods, painted for N&W and Southern - beautiful and excellent runners. Other plastic HO scale high hood 2nd generation diesels include Atlas GP38's and B23-7's, and the P2K GP30 is on the way.

The N&W's may have been equipped with dual control stands, but the Southern's were equipped with the control stand on the right side looking towards the short hood. The Southern ran hood diesels long-hood forward because they believed they could be run equally well in either direction and there was no point in turning them at the end of a run. As a practical matter you can't see signals very well if you are on the left looking down a long hood. As a result, they started equipping SD45's, GP38's and all subsequent models with control stands on the right side looking towards the long hood end. From the 60's Brosnan era on, you would see the long vs. short hood leading about

50-50.

Frank Greene Memphis, TN

All SD35s in North America were short hood forward. N&W may have had some with dual controls, but the short end was designated as the front in any case.

Southern Railway did NOT operate SD35s long hood forward. All Southern SD35s had the short hood end designated as the front and the engine driver's position was installed accordingly. Read Frank Green's post on why Southern started running Long hood forward with the GP38, SD45 and SD40.

Froggy,

"Southern Railway did NOT operate SD35s long hood forward."

Like these?

Eric

No Eric. You misunderstood what I said. All Southern SD35s were designated as short end forward, meaning that the long hood end was the rear end of the machine. The engine driver's position was situated such that when the locomotive was moving forward, the engine driver was facing the short hood end. If you can look closely at the photos of Southern SD35s running lead with the long hood in front, you will see that the engine driver is on the "wrong", or off side. This does not mean that they were never run as the lead engine with the long hood leading, it simply means that the short hood end was the front.

We ran them without turning them in either direction that they needed to go. It was sometimes difficult to see signals running from the wrong side when the long hood was leading, so we started putting the engine drivers position on the other side and running them long hood forward.

Froggy,

"No Eric. You misunderstood what I said. All Southern SD35s were designated as short end forward, meaning that the long hood end was the rear end of the machine."

I understand that. The small 'f' in the white box is on the short hood end in all SD-35 photos.

"This does not mean that they were never run as the lead engine with the long hood leading, it simply means that the short hood end was the front."

Well you should have said that in the first place then. ;-)

"We ran them without turning them in either direction that they needed to go. It was sometimes difficult to see signals running from the wrong side when the long hood was leading, so we started putting the engine drivers position on the other side and running them long hood forward."

I thought you said the SOU SD-35s had standard positioned control stands ie the endineer on the right hand side with the 'F' end pointing forward. Wouldn't you need to have a dual position control stand for the engineer to operate the locomotive from the left side with the loco operating backwards ie the 'f' end trailing?

Wouldn't it require a dual position control stand to operate long hood forward. Or is someone else besides the engineer operating the unit with him sitting unit backwards in the left hand seat giving instructions?

Or were units converted to control stand facing towards the long hood without changing the location of the painted 'F' to the long hood end?

Eric

I thought I did. Apparently not clearly enough.

No.

No. Southern control stands were engineered such that they would function the same in either direction. The engine driver did not face forward and look over the top of the stand as in short hood machines. The control stand was situated so that the engine driver operated it with his left hand going forward, or turned 180 degrees and operated it right handed running "reverse". It was nothing at all like the console in a modern wide nose locomotive or a first generation cab unit. Motoring down line of road, you could turn 90 degrees to the console, rest your right arm on the window and drive with your left hand. If you had the loco running "backwards" you simply turned 90 degrees the other way to the console, rested your left arm on the window and drove with your right hand

When switching, you could sit with your back to the window, facing the console, and look out either forward or reverse by merely turning your head. Fact of the matter is, if you have good radio communication with the man on the ground, you can run the locomotive blindfolded. There is no real need to see out

99.9% of the time, and you are as familiar with the console as you are with your own body. You know exactly where everything is and exactly how to put your hand on it without being able to see it. So- no problem. Note: I said you could do it, not that you should do it, or that I ever did it. I had a habit of watching the ground to judge the speed more accurately than a speed recorder could.

In no case was the engine driver ever riding backwards. Sideways maybe, but never backwards.

Not giving instructions, but operating rules have always mandated at least two people in the cab, and each is required to call signals out loud as soon as they come into view.

No. No SD35 was ever reconfigured to LHF. They were SHF for their entire service lives.

As I mentioned before, another poster stated why Southern decided to switch to LHF instead of SHF. It was partly because the company operated any locomotive facing in either direction as the lead unit. Running LHF made it more effective for the engine driver to see signals when he operated from the off side, i.e., SH leading.

Froggy,

I asked a Southern engineer in the early 1980's why they ran the engines backwards and he said it was in their labor contract to do so when ever possible. It was too give more protection to the crew in case of a collision. At that time it was standard practice for the Southern to add one of their engines to run it long hood foreword in the lead on run through trains we gave them(MoPac).