Losing Our Direction

[Mike Fox]

Keith,
Was it the N&W or the Southern that had some units with 2 control stands? I was in the south for 4 years and remember some of the NS units were still that way.

[Keith Taylor]

Keith,
Was it the N&W or the Southern that had some units with 2 control stands? I was in the south for 4 years and remember some of the NS units were still that way.

Mike, from what I remember the Southern had high short hoods leading and the N&W had some dual control locomotives, but it has been a long time and my memory isn't so good. I do know the Reading had dual control SW1500's that became Conrail units.
Keith

[Stewart "Start" Rhine]

The N&W had quite a few engines with dual control stands.  We had 4 ex-N&W GP-9's with dual controls when I was at Maryland Midland.  We rebuilt one at a time and one control set was removed, the high hood chopped and the short end became the front.  We also did low voltage re-wires.  This was 1989 - '91.

[Ira Schreiber]

And all of the PRSL Baldwin As-16 and DRS-1500 diesels had dual controls with the long hood being the F end.

[Wayne Laepple]

The Reading had quite a few dual control diesels, ranging from RS-3's and F-M Trainmasters to modern SW-1500's and MP-15's. The MP-15's were designed to replace old Baldwin and Alco roadswitchers and even had toilets. The toilet was located right in front of the cab on the right side, necessitating a long walk from the cab door on the other side all the way around the front. Not much fun on a dark and stormy night!

[Keith Taylor]

Reading dual control switcher at Three Bridges, NJ on the former Lehigh Valley RR mainline.
These rascals were capable of 50 mph on a mainline. I know this from personal experience.
Good locomotives!
Keith

[john d Stone]

RF&P had dual control stands on all of it's GP35's, GP40's (Not the -2's) SW1200's and #91, a SW1500.
Not thinking of doing that to #9 are you?

[Phil McCall]

Keith, you may recall some ex-PC and CR GP38s with dual controls, some of them ended up on the CM&W (Chicago Missouri & Western) railroad on the ex-GM&O line between Chicago and Kansas City. I spent my senior year in college in 1988 riding around on the Bloomington IL yard engine (obviously a different time), and some of the GP38s, picked up from Helm, had a second control stand, long since disused, facing back from the fireman's side, they were unpopular because they took up space where an extra seat would be. I am not sure why they had the second control stand, 7700 series PC and CR numbers as I recall, they were junkers by then, they threw oil out on the gangway four inches deep..

[Wayne Laepple]

Phil -- I believe those Geep 38's with dual controls were probably the former Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines units. They replaced dual-control Baldwin road switchers. PRSL had a lot of short branch lines where one unit could handle the traffic and apparently they liked the concept of the engineer being on the right side no matter which direction they were running.

[Ira Schreiber]

They were in the 2000 series on PRSL.

[john d Stone]

Four of those dual control GP38's, 2010-2014 never made it to PRSL. They ended up on Penn Central. I rode them as a kid on the Pemberton branch local freight.
RF&P's SW1200's rode nice at 60 on the south end local!

[Keith Taylor]

RF&P's SW1200's rode nice at 60 on the south end local!

The speed limit on the Lehigh Line was 50 mph under Conrail.....so naturally I wouldn't know how they rode at 60 mph.
 

[Ira Schreiber]

This s way off the WW&F. Finis

[john d Stone]

I figured the admin was hot on our trail!

So, anyway, the beautiful new turntable comes at the price of directional distraction. While this is a serious condition, I think the great minds of Sheepscot will prevail. Perhaps another turning facility at wherever the North End attains will be the ultimate solution, or perhaps turning the engine twice per trip further complicates things. Geez! Just look for which end the smokestack is on!

other John

[Steve Smith]

John Stone...I thought yours was a great idea....and then I remembered those Southern Pacific "cab-in-fronts"