# Ray, geep long nose forward



## Guest (Aug 8, 2008)

Ray, 
check this video out, i guess the GP-9's were run with long nose forward, go figure/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif 
Nick..


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## Richard Smith (Jan 2, 2008)

Nick, 

Some neat Central shots on there. Thanks for the link. 

A number of roads ran long hood forward in the earlier diesel days. It was for greater crew safety and in a time when most diesel crews were ex-steam era viewing down a long hood as down a long boiler wasn't considered a problem. The N&W especially ran long hood first for a long time. 

Baldwin's road switchers were built exclusively with long hood front.


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## Guest (Aug 8, 2008)

Hey Rich, 
Ya, Ray and i couldnt figure out witch way they were used, so we knew witch way to set up the DCS system in my GEEPS, we set them with short nose forward, so i guess if we do some more i will have to put long nose forward. 
Nick..


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## Joe McGarry (Jan 4, 2008)

Thanks for the video, some real nice shots. 

I have a GP-9 that I usually run long nose forward. Personally I think it looks better that way. Neighbors accuse me of running it "backward". Just had to put in my two cents worth. 

Best Regards, 

Joe


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## Dennis Paulson (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks , sure enjoyed that video .


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Technically you can run any dismal frontwords or backwords, just depends how it ends up coupling to the rest of train. The only RR that I remember specificly setting up their engines for long nose forward ops was the Norfolk Western, and that was because their crews were concerned about head on collisions.


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Most railroads ran short nose forward. There were exceptions like have already been noted here. Southern Pacific had some commuter locos that had dual controls so they could be run either way.


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## Road Foreman (Jan 2, 2008)

Alco's RS-1, the long hood was the front.. Steam heritage, wanted a lot out in front.. This worked until the FRA said "NO NO".. Same thing happened to the "Horsey" railroad with there antique engineer stands.. 

BulletBob


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## Fred (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks like that video was an Emery Gulash film, many of those shots were from the Detroit Livernois/Dearborn, Mich area as well as around Ann Arbor, Mi. Most rr's did run long nose forward but around here the D&TSL operated their geeps short nose forward for better visibilty.


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## Richard Weatherby (Jan 3, 2008)

Look for the "F" on the running boards or cab.


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## Guest (Aug 8, 2008)

Richard, 
Its funny you said that, i just went and looked at side of loco and on the long hoodside of pilot it says F-1, on the short hood pilot it says 2 i was wondering what that ment. see you learn something new every day  leave it to USA trains to go the extra mile and make sure all the marking are correct 
Nick...


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By vsmith on 08/08/2008 8:23 AM
Technically you can run any dismal frontwords or backwords, just depends how it ends up coupling to the rest of train. The only RR that I remember specificly setting up their engines for long nose forward ops was the Norfolk Western, and that was because their crews were concerned about head on collisions.




and Southern. 

Southern and N&W were well known for ordering diesels with high short hoods and designating the long hood as "front"..even up into the 1980's with locos as modern as GP38-2's and SD40-2's.. 

In this photo: 
http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib016/SOU3248.JPG 
the lead SD40-2 is running forward, the second unit is running backwards.. 

and here is a series of my own photos, Waverly NY, 1986: 





































THREE high-hood N&W SD45's! /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/w00t.gif 
quite the rare lashup for Waverly, even then. 

all three are running forward. 

Scot


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2008)

Nice pictures Scott, very impressive i guess i'l be doing a few long hood forwards. looks cool and different at the same time. 
Nick.


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## Rayman4449 (Jan 2, 2008)

Wow those are some cool pictures. (sigh... long live the Norfolk and Western...) Cool video too Nick. 

Yeah, I figured USAT had it setup protypical...they have the engineer setup long hood forward. I still think it looks backwards! 

We will do the next GP9 the other way. 


Raymond


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Fred on 08/08/2008 12:58 PM
Looks like that video was an Emery Gulash film, many of those shots were from the Detroit Livernois/Dearborn, Mich area as well as around Ann Arbor, Mi. Most rr's did run long nose forward but around here the D&TSL operated their geeps short nose forward for better visibilty. 





His Wabash and PC films are excellent also.


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## Rayman4449 (Jan 2, 2008)

Wait, didn't I see at least a couple of GP9s that look like they were running short hood forward?  I know they could be run either way.. 

Raymond


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## John Gates (Jan 4, 2008)

They can be run either way, but there is only one control stand. When a railroad ordered new units the would specify what side the control stand would be located. Most roads prefered short hood forward but there were some roads that wanted long hood forward. All units had a small 'F' on the end that the road considered the 'Front'. If you were working in the yard and were told to make a move backwards, you would have to know what end was forward to go backward. The ICRR had two GP7s (8850 & 8851) that had dual control stands, one on each side, and could be operated long distances either long or short hood forward and the engineer would sit on the RH side where he belonged. 

John Gates 
Santee, Ca


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Fascinating bit of RR trivia. This one may change how some of us operate our locos..


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

I live at the west end of the N&S (old N&W, older NKP) yards in Ohio. For the longest time they had an old SD that did yard work and the occasional short local run. Even into the late 90's it had the "F" on the long hood side. The crew did run it short hood forward though.


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## BNGP10 (Jan 4, 2008)

Many of the ex Southern EMD high hoods had dual control stands for running either way. Gets kind of cramped in there when you have a crew of 3, engineer, conductor and a student, either conductor or engineer trainee. I got shuffled to the second unit many times back then, when I was a student conductor in 1998. Cheers Mike


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