Nebraska Central Railroad Company - 251, 252, 253, 255

[ncrc5315]

These are former SOU GP38-2 units, high short hoods, with the F on the long hood. Could these still be long hood forward? Do long hood forward locomotives ever get converted to short short hood forward? Just wondering.

[nsc39d8]

All most all of Southern's diesel fleet was set up to run long hood forward with dual control stands. I think the only exception was the GP30's. Through their careers with Southern and then Norfolk
Southern they stayed long hood forward. With the dual control stands the engineer was always on the right side of the cab to see the signals. This does not mean he had to switch positions while doing yard work
or servicing a customer. These units should also have dual horns on each end and depending on their NS number might have plows on each end.

[edwardsutorik]

Sept 5, 2022 16:55:01 GMT -8 ncrc5315 said:

Do long hood forward locomotives ever get converted to short short hood forward? Just wondering.

When BN rebuilt some former GN GP7's into GP10's, they did that. Makes sense, since they also lowered the short hood.

As the ONLY modification, though, I seriously doubt it was ever done.


Ed

[ncrc5315]

Thank you for the replies, it just caught me off guard. These were sitting in the yard, I suppose they would work ok as switch engines.

[nsc39d8]

I didn't answer the question about the high hoods being cut and changed to short hood forward.. Yes sometimes they do.
Most of the GP38-2's that NS sold did not have the high hood lowered. No sense in doing the work and then selling the loco. If you look at the remaining GP38-2's on the NS roster in the 5000-5250 series the ones still in service have had the high short hood cut down and the cab replaced with a standard EMD or NS admiral cab
There are a few remaining high short hood locos on the NS roster. Most of the ex-Southern SD40-2's have had their high short hood cut. These would be numbered 3201-3328.

Those GP38-2's held down a lot of mainline assignments in their career from mainfest to high speed intermodal. A few even had Locotrol installed to serve a head end and mid train power.  To clarify another point, these GP38-2's had dual control stands, a control stand on both sides of the cab for the engineer to operate the loco and be on the right side of the cab no matter which hood end was leading.  They  could be operated with the short hood forward with no restrictions.

The "F" just designates which end is the front of the loco.  Even some of the N&W SD40-s with low short hoods had the long hood designated as the front.

www.rr-fallenflags.org/nw/nw1639akg.jpg


Here is GP38-2 5011 heading a coal drag with short hood forward:
southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/gp38-2/5011b.jpg

[edwardsutorik]

You can see the F on this one, underneath the vertical handrail:



I'm not finding any pictures showing an "F" on the UP version, though.



Ed

[lvrr325]

The F is as much for operations purposes as anything, so that when the ground crew radios or signals to come ahead, the engineer operates to the front of the locomotive, and vice versa.

EMD units could have one control stand, two control stands, and they had a tandem control stand for a short time which allowed the engineer to change sides without stopping, setting the brake, and moving the control handles. Low hood units with this contraption had the middle of the cab extended out about a foot - PRSL GP38s, a handful of PC GP38s, and Reading SD45s are examples.

And it's not unusual at all in a heavy rebuild to change which end is front by moving the control stand, or in the case of tandems replacing with a conventional type. The control doesn't care where it is, just that it's wired up correctly.

[ncrc5315]

Finally had time to look at the video I took of these two units, there is only one control stand, and they are setup for long hood forward. I'm assuming, these will be the yard engines.