I recently watched the movie "The Train" with Burt Lancaster. I've seen it several times, and always enjoy watching it again. Each time I notice something new.

I'm curious about the wire fence mesh screens on the locomotive cab awnings, between the cab and the tender.

What was their purpose? Were they common?

I have my own ideas, but purely speculation. Maybe someone here knows!

Thanks.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think they were a reminder to watch your head, just in case the engine was on electrified track. That catenary could be shocking!

It doesn't seem to have been on all locomotives. It shows up on an Etat 4-6-2 in the 1938 film "La Bete Humaine" ("The Human Beast," based on a novel by Emil Zola), but it's absent on an SNCF 4-6-2 in the short film, "Pacific 231" from 1949.

The railroad scenes from "La Bete Humaine:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC2RsrXJ_FY

"Pacific 231," inspired by the symphonic work of the same name by Arthur Honegger that makes up the soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKRCJhLU7rs

The American-built 141Rs that dominated late French steam operations didn't seem to have them, perhaps because the engines and tenders filled the loading gauge quite well, but signs in appropriate places warned crews to watch out for those wires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66z2ZqjKvps

"Attention (Image of a lightning bolt) Danger de Mort"

.

Watch your head, and then some! A rake, bar, or hoe, used in busting up clinkers in the firebox, could become a lightning rod or ersatz pantograph. That screen was there to prevent that from happening.

I have read that steam locomotives on the NKP, used in the vicinity of Cleveland, had rope whistle and bell cords, instead of steel cable. The idea was that a broken cable could whip up and contact the CUT's 3000 VDC overhead. I wonder if other roads followed the same practice.

When the Western Pacific #94 was running under the wire at Rio Vista, one morning while getting steam up in the shop, the fireman went up on top of the tender to check the fuel oil level. He pulled the dip stick out and accidently hooked it on the overhead wire in the shop......

shocking.....

One day right after Conrail came into being, I was called to run an AMTRAK wire train. I arrived at Hunter Street on the Northeast Corridor and was prepping an old EMD GP-7 for the days work. Being prior right Lehigh Valley RR I wasn't used to working in electrified territory. I began to climb up the end ladder to check the level in the sand boxes. As I climbed up the ladder I could feel the hair raising on my scalp as I neared the 11,000 volt A.C. overhead. Needless to say I got down that ladder REALLY quick!
From that point on I didn't really care if the locomotive had sand or cooling water as both required a trip to the roof to replenish.
Keith

I agree with EDM. Look at the tube positioned in the tender coal bunker full of rakes and other long handled tools which keeps you from sliding them up onto the top of the tender for storage .