Other than electric locomotives, nearly all steam locos and most diesel-electric locos have their cabs positioned at middle of the body.
Does it mean loco drivers were never required to see where they were actually going??
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at 60mph it takes about a mile to stop a loco in a hurry, so knowing whats directly in front of you in the immediate 100 yards is a waste of time.
You can see down the sides of the locos, and all the info you need is at the side of the track, or more than 100 yards ahead,
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Why the electric locos have cab forward design then? They travel much faster and don't need to see front of cab then?
:o)
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steam locos the men are at the back of the steam tubes as it would be a bit hot to stand between them
diesels they would have to stand on the crank
so really a non question :-)
next............
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>> Why the electric locos have cab forward design then? They travel much faster and don't
>> need to see front of cab then?
They are lighter, they do stop quicker as they have better brakes (not in 100 yards tho) but mosty as there is no huge motive power unit up front required (its under the floor in the bogies) so you push the driver forward to make room for more cattle, I mean passengers.
There are still plenty of SPAD's tho.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 14 Aug 10 at 23:14
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Of course, there's an exception to every rule.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ErZ5SgkVw
This will probably be an oil-burner, as there is no supply of coal at the firebox end to be shovelled in.
Some diesels were built in this country with the cab in the middle, mostly shunting engines.
The gradual removal of turntables meant main line locos needed a cab at both ends, with duplicate controls. A full length train, such as a Pendolino, needs two cabs to obviate the need for turning it ' to go back whence it came '
A full train can only be turned round on a triangle of tracks big enough.
Ted
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I wonder what visibility was like in this
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8f9VF1NyDQ
Love this machine.
Last edited by: corax on Sun 15 Aug 10 at 09:29
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8f9VFlNyDQ
Thats better.
Last edited by: corax on Sun 15 Aug 10 at 09:38
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I enjoyed those too, some serious non DPF'd black smoke in Ted's clip, Corax's 'Big Boys' i was a bit wary of but it's fine.
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If you play Train Simulator, you can actually feel them!
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>> Corax's 'Big
>> Boys' i was a bit wary of but it's fine.
I never liked the name either, but the engines were something else. The biggest locomotive in the world, I think, and not one of them in working order, unfortunately. Mind you, what would the budget have to be to keep one running? Pete Waterman sank millions into the Flying Scotsman.
After all the brilliant names the Americans have had for their cars, you'd think they could call this something better :-)
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Better visibility from the cab of a ' Camelback '....Must have been ruddy hot in there, though !
tinyurl.com/39k89av
Flying Scotsman's just a big money pit. Now in the national Collection.
Pete Waterman was very wise to get out of it !
Ted
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>> Flying Scotsman's just a big money pit. Now in the national Collection.
>> Pete Waterman was very wise to get out of it !
>>
>> Ted
>>
Some years ago, "Flying Scotsman" and "Blue Peter" both visited the GCR at Loughborough. I was a volunteer on the railway and had the opportunity to ride on the footplates of both locomotives. I can testify that the "Scotsman" is a very rough rider compared to its sister engine.
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...Big Boys...
There's an old railway saying: "If one won't do, use two."
Suppose that's too simple for our transatlantic cousins.
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A customer of mine has a railway engine parked in his drive, much to the disgust of at least one of his neighbours as he lives in a leafy little well to do cul-de-sac. It is a Canadian Railways maintenance engine, about the size of a Yaris, powered by a two stroke engine and with room for a gang of six line workers. He belongs to a steam raliway society who are restoring an old line near Camarthan and he bought and imported it from Canada with the intention of restoring it for use on the line. It looks far from comfortable with notices in the cab that ear defenders must be worn, but probably fun to drive with good all round visability.
I must blag a ride if he ever gets it going.
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Attempts were made in the latter days of steam to design a locomotive which overcame the visibility problem; possibly the best documented is O.V.S. Bulleid's "Leader" built for the Southern Railway;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR_Leader_class
An ingenious attempt to turn the tide back, but to no avail.
Robin, years ago when I was but a lad, there was a steam engine stored in a barn in my home village of Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire; a class Y7 0-4-0 tank locomotive (68088) which was restored at the Great Central Railway, Loughborough. I suspect that playing on that loco as a child "fired" my interest in steam! Its custodian, a gentleman by the name of Roland Hoggard, was a guard on British Railways, and is also the person responsible for saving and restoring the original clock from London St. Pancras station, a remarkable and little-known feat of preservation.
tinyurl.com/2vceae7
Sorry for the thread drift but Roland's tale is worth telling.
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Heart warming story that one about Roland, thank for posting HarleyM.
Who will replace the likes of he.
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A remarkable man; he's never owned a car, went everywhere either by train or bicycle. If on the latter he often towed a variety of home-made and lethal-looking trailers, often carrying a bale of hay for the sheep and goats on his smallholding.
Clocks are his passion, and he was a wizard at repairing them; trouble was he had so many jobs on the go that you were never sure when you'd get yours back!
His other contributions to village life included a village clock (now sadly taken down) and a fourth bell for the local church (despite him being a staunch chapel man) in memory of his son, a contemporary of mine who was tragically run over outside his house aged only 17.
As you rightly say, they don't make them like that any more.
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I watched 5029 'Nunney Castle' blast up the hill out of Weymouth with 8 on - no banker - this evening, what a glorious sight! Gleaming loco, loads of smoke, deafening exhaust blast as it went by about 20 feet away at eye level. :-))
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The DMU has the driver sitting to the left as your sitting in the cab this is that most have a vestibule door to the front so can couple and have through access.
EMU don't but the have more carrages.
The HST the driver sits more in the middle of the cab a great position with good access to get in and move about there is a second mans seat to his left and lots of room behind, and behind the firewall lays a nice huge 12 cylinder MTU engine.
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...DMU, EMU, HST, MTU....
Bigtee,
PDNUAHAEU.
(Please do not use acronyms hardly anyone else understands.)
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DMU Diesel multiple units
EMU Electrical multiple units
HST High speed train
MTU is the maker of the engine that replaced the paxman diesel.
ifithelps,
Now as for the above most folk who know something about trains will have known what they were or a quick google search whould have showed you, it's not text speak it's everyday Railway terminology after all the HST is to be found on most Hornby train sets in most toy shops all over the country if not the world.!!
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- Bigtee i like trains but also didnt have a clue what your briefs were
remember sometimes you can google something get sidetracked and wake up in cyber space at 3 in the morning :-(
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your briefs were
>> remember sometimes you can google something get sidetracked and
Leave Bigtee's briefs out of this, Corax's Big Boys link had me a bit worried along those lines with swmbo breathing over me shoulder wondering if i'm on the change.
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...most folk who know something about trains will have known what they were or a quick google search would have showed you...
Bigtee,
Thanks for the list - I would have guessed two correctly.
You are writing for a general audience on this forum which means these things need to be spelled out.
No one is going to bother with google to decipher a post.
Some acronyms or initials can be used on their own - SOS, BBC - but most should be explained.
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ifithelps,
As this is a motoring forum we need to learn the car related ones too,
DMF Dual mass flywheel
DPF Diesel particle filter
Most will know these but to spell everything out on a topic is pointless the thread will be as long as your arm if you need to know then it can be looked up or just like you ask.
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and behind the firewall lays a nice
>> huge 12 cylinder MTU engine.
>>
In the Woodhead Electric Locos, there was something else behind the firewall, a small stainless steel urinal draining onto the track. Do others have this luxury, Bigtee ?
Ted
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Just for Iffy, where did the driver sit in the APT ?,...... BT
Ted
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>>
>> Just for Iffy, where did the driver sit in the APT ?,...... BT
>>
>> Ted
>>
In the front?
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>> Just for Iffy, where did the driver sit in the APT ?,...... BT
Well the power trains were in the middle for the APT... not a good place for a driver.
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No but the cab washer bottle sprays yellow fluid now and again.!!
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Locomotive visibility - Zero
