For possible retrofitting of a cord pull horn valve, I am wondering where the eyebolt for the pulley would have been attached to the ceiling of the cab. There are holes aplenty after 70 years, but none of them seem ideally suited for the purpose.

Was this one of those deals where a road could specify where the pulley went?

I am finding surprisingly few period photos of the cabs that provide much help.

Having handled countless old EMD switchers when I worked for BN, I could say there are plenty of variations in the horn honkers. Are these factory arrangements ?? Maybe somebody else can tell you.

Yes, the location of the original equipment from La Grange is what I am wondering about. EMD P.L. A2906 (Dec 1952) shows the (nominal) placement of the 1" pulley and its eyebolt in one dimension, but not the other. In the end, if the setup does go retro, the most likely existing hole will be used and that will do.

It's a minor issue in the larger scheme of things, but another reminder of the relative scarcity of photos showing such things in locomotive cabs when the units were fairly new.

Not sure if it would be the same, but should be close, next week I will be on board a mostly original SW9 with a cord setup. PM me an email or cell # and I can send pictures and measurements. There is also an NW2 on the property but I believe it is the same arrangement.

Gham55*

Here are two photos of what you are looking for.

The first is in an EMC SW1, LV112 built April 1939, and the second is EMD SW1, PRR 9206 built April 1949.





Both engines have the eye bolt in just about the exact same spot. Measuring from the front of the cab wall approximately 29 ¼” to ½”. From the side measuring from the top of the molding using a common tape measurer, so it doesn’t lay on the curved roof panel real precisely, I got 32”.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Happy New Year!

Scott Kwiatkowski

Thanks for the offer and thanks for the pictures!

There is a hole in the cab roof in question that would be pretty close to the PRR 9206 pulley placement. Just a hole, with nothing to thread into, though.

In this cab ceiling, the only hole having any existing 1/4 x 20 threads to take the eyebolt is one that is right through that transverse "batten" strip about six inches or so rear of the 9206's pulley location.

The eyebolt for anchoring the bottom of the cord is an eye brazed to the top of a fairly long fillister-head machine screw that is screwed down into a threaded hole at the periphery of the top of the drum controller. The pull cord would go from the eye of the valve lever back to the pulley and then down/forward so the wood handle would be at a fair angle rather than hanging nearly vertical.

A more compelling issue may be whether to rig it with 1/8" wire rope or #8 window sash cord. The pertinent EMD end cab switcher P.L. seems to indicate the former was OEM, but I know from past experience that a lot of employes HATED wire rope with a passion.

When EMC/EMD built those early units, they welded brackets onto the steel roof inside the cab. That bracket had a threaded hole for the pulley. If you have a hole in that general area, go back and look close to see if you can see the bracket in there. I tend to recall that its larger than 1/4’. May be 5/16”.