Did steam locos run with cab doors open?

[mmagliaro]

Take a look at this photo.  Note the cab door open (circled in red) in the forward wall of the cab.  Also note there is a crew in the cab and the engine appears to be under steam.

Was it common for an engine to run with those doors open like that?  This is a switcher, so it spent 99% of its life putting around yards at low speed.  Would it be common under those circumstances, as opposed to mainline running?  I can imagine it might make things more comfortable in the cab, and it might provide a clearer view without that dirty window glass in the way.

I'd appreciate anyone's personal experiences or direct observations of steam running in a yard. 

[Chris333]

The caption of this photo said it was out on the main around Lima OH I think:


I really don't think there were rules for the windows and doors.

[mmagliaro]

Yeah, I'm not looking for "rules".  I'm trying to figure out if it was common for the doors to be one way or the other so I know how to set mine.

I think I've answered my own question, in any event.  Looking through all the photos of every SP&S steam switcher I have, they are overwhelmingly open on every photo that has the engine in service with a crew in the cab.    Some of them have the doors removed completely.  My guess is they were a nuisance to see through, and just another thing to do if the crew needed to walk out onto the walkway, so they just left them open all the time.   There are a scant few with a closed door, but those are all idle or in a dead line.

So.... open it is.

[peteski]

Peteski's Logic dictates that it would make sense, on a hot summer day, to get as much ventilation as they could.

[Doug G.]

Summer - open.

Winter - closed.



Doug

[Maletrain]

There probably were not a lot of photographers out in driving rain storms, so the evidence for closing the doors in the summer storms may not have been recorded.  But, unless those doors were hard to reposition, I can't imagine a crew having them in any other position than the one that made them most comfortable and/or their work as easy as possible.

[rickb773]

Strasburg RR - September 2016

[wazzou]

Yes, ventilation and clearer sight lines.  Weather permitting of course.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Is this the time to talk about the "Open Door Policy" and "The Letter"?
http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/observation-tower/archive/2015/01/28/railroaders-railfans-and-the-letter.aspx

[Maletrain]

Is this the time to talk about the "Open Door Policy" and "The Letter"?
http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/observation-tower/archive/2015/01/28/railroaders-railfans-and-the-letter.aspx

No it is not! At least not here.

The issue for this thread is whether engine crews ran with doors open for reasons other than being antagonistic to "railfans".

If you guys want to get into the argument illustrated by Ed's link, please do so in another thread that I can ignore, rather than drift this one onto the rocks.

Back to the issue in the OP, is an open door something that would be common is a yard or road switching situation?

[CBQ Fan]

No it is not! At least not here.

The issue for this thread is whether engine crews ran with doors open for reasons other than being antagonistic to "railfans".

If you guys want to get into the argument illustrated by Ed's link, please do so in another thread that I can ignore, rather than drift this one onto the rocks.

Back to the issue in the OP, is an open door something that would be common is a yard or road switching situation?

I can’t decide what was more interesting the original post or the comments that followed.

[nkalanaga]

I would think it would be common anywhere in warm weather. 

[central.vermont]

Well ya know Max is gonna model it with functional doors so open or closed won't matter!!!! 

Jon

[Maletrain]

I would think it would be common anywhere in warm weather.

I would think so, too.  But, I don't recall seeing any pictures of steam locos with those doors open in all of the many books that I have, nor on the Internet, with the exception of the ones posted for this thread.  I am wondering if that is because they were hardly ever open, or if it is because book editors do not like the pictures with doors open and choose others to publish.  The thread that Ed posted the link to seems to indicate that railfans today do not like pictures with the doors open (and crew visible), so I am wondering if that has had some affect on what we see in books and think of as "normal".  I will say that the old, transition era pictures in books do occasionally include visible crew, and that usually involves a caption that mentions them in a non-negative manner.

[Chris333]

Just some I have uploaded.