Thursday Proto Photo, Nov 18/21

[Leggy]

And yet....

[wes_sutton]

Exactly the point, the nose isn't the part that's designed to protect, it's the structural integrity of the crew occupied space and to say that here in Australia our safety standards are worse is laughable. Locomotives have been in collisions here that have had such force that the cab itself has been torn from the frame yet stayed intact and crew survived. Same with literally every other country that uses flat nosed locomotives. Unions here have pushed for safety just as hard as anywhere else yet the only locomotives in this country resembling a US wide nose are a single class of 10 from 1977 and a handful of more recently built units for lesser service (point to the Pilbara all you like, it's literally a small part of this vast continent and operates unlike anywhere else here). In spite of this when the NR Class was designed in the early/mid 90s the unions were consulted and infact part of the design process when it came to the cab of that locomotive, surely if safety was only achieved with a wide nose they'd have ended up with them?

It seems to come down to the same culture that has made cab overs such a rarity in US trucking, ya'll only feel safe with a big nose to plow thru things.

........

Truth 

[aikorob]

WMSR  1309   First run Friday  11/19

[packers#1]

Cabovers fell out of favor for a number of reasons, but mainly due to relaxation or changes in overall length restrictions.

You’re 100% right on why they stopped, but they’re also an absolute pain to work on the engine. In high school I worked at the shop of a trash company owned by a guy at church; the Internationals you just popped open the hood and had maintenance access for days; the Mack’s for picking up dumpsters you had to tilt the cab forward and it was, shall we say, an adventure to access the front of the motor.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The BHP locomotive pictured is a frame up Dash 8 GE rebuild of a C636/M636C type locomotive so those are true ALCo Hi-Ad bogies.

Whoa, I hadn't even noticed that.

What a truly weird bird.