I was not aware of the one on the Boone, Thats good. Colorado Railroad Museum also has a DRGW SD40T-2, but not on the property yet.

"It's a Southern thang, boy, now mind yer manners and don't question yah elders!"

Brother J3a explains rather succinctly the railfan interest in a SR/N&W "High-nose."

As to the "why," both SR and N&W, in a commonality of "conservative" mentality that effectively previewed their eventual merger, ordered the high-nose EMD and GE second-generation models set up to run long-hood-forward. The supposed rationale for this was that the longer hood offered the crew additional protection in case of a grade-crossing accident or collision, and in at least a couple instances that proved true. However, the disadvantages of reduced, steam-locomotive-style visibility also reared its head a bit too often (day in and day out), and eventually NS capitulated and went to more standard wide-nose crew cabs like everyone else.

N&W/SR/NS management proved "conservative" in other locomotive matters as well. The road's refusal to modernize locomotive toilet facilities and servicing nearly came to an acrimonious stand-off between union and management. It may be "too much information" to the average museum-goer, but it is legitimate rail labor history, tasteful or not.

Back in the 1980s, I rode a NS excursion that ran from Alexandria to Lynchburg and return with a high-nose SR U25B and a high-nose SR GP35 leading southbound, with N&W 1218 returning. I remember thinking, as only a handful of chasers shot the southbound duo of well-worn diesels (possibly the oldest reliable diesels NS could find in Virginia at the time) southbound, "Ten or twenty years from now, they'll be able to sell tickets for this pair of diesels running on an excursion train on the main line!"

> What was even the point of a high nose.

Locomotives built for Southern and N&W were run long hood forward. Having a high short hood was of no consequence because it was behind the crew.

I personally like the looks of the high nose SD40-2s. They are unique, but unique equipment doesn't always get saved. Look at the SD40X. Only 4 were built. They were the basis for the SD50. KCS had four of them and all were still in service through the last decade. I believe they also had the very first production SD40-2 as well as SD50.

Yep, thats what does it for me..
This is still, to this day, one of the coolest lashups I have ever seen:











and this was during the time that D&H and NYSW Alcos were still running on this line!
for the time and place, a set of matched high-hoods, all running "forward" was (and still is) a once in a lifetime sighting for me..I will always like the high-hoods..exotic...spotting one today on NS is a treat..

Scot

And here is another model that should be kept in mind for preservation..
the very last of the High Hoods..Southern GP50's built in 1980 and 1981:

http://www.nslocos.com/nsgp50.html

many have gone through the GP38-3 rebuild program and now have chopped noses..anyone know if any remain with their high hoods?

Then:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 506&nseq=5

Now (same unit)
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1769587

The "last high hood" would probably be GP50 7092..
She's been rebuilt..also now a chopped GP38-3..

Scot

FWIW, the remainder of the NS GP-50's are going to become slugs that will operate with ECO units built from NS GP-49 cores. This is cast in stone.

For my money, the concept of the high short nose could just as easily (and inexpensively) be demonstrated with models. Seems to me this seemingly minor distinction would be lost on most visitors, anyhow.

DPK

The main reason to preserve these as some have pointed out are the obscurity of them.
Yes it will probably be lost on most people BUT the fact of the matter is these were still given high noses even whilst all the other railroads save the N&W switched right to low noses.

You may say let them go through the current rebuild program and soldier on for another 20 years, but that means the removal of the high nose. Once the high noses/cabs are gone where are we to find more high nose cabs if we were to theoretically get it preserved in the future? Remember, It is ALWAYS better to preserve sooner than later.

Also counting the fact of ~200 high nose GP38-2's still in service, you may say why not preserve these as high nose examples as they are smaller, and the same high nose reason stated above applies. I'd agree with you on all of that too, but another principle reason for getting one of these to a museum is that you will NOT find a high nose example of a 6 axle Southern unit except for maybe a pure sd40 at the Juniata deadlines.

Please take all of this into account before you start bashing the idea of preserving one.

Maybe some can get Faulkner to give them a scrap cab and high nose from one of the capital rebuilds. They scrap 'em any way...

DPK

I'm starting to believe that the weird and obscure will be preseved so much that the normal will eventually become the weird and obscure.

I can't agree with this. The reason why so many "typical" pieces of equipment ended up being scrapped completely, is because too many focus on the obscure. Think of how many NYC Hudsons there were, and how NONE of them were saved, even though they were typical power for their day.



A high nose and cab is just fabricated steel. If you want to preserve one bad enough, you purchase one when it is retired, and simply backdate the cab and nose by fabricating them from the original blueprints ... just like EMD did when they originally built them. As long as you have a genuine SOU SD40-2 frame, it's not that difficult to convert it back to whatever configuration you want to display it as.



See above. It doesn't matter what the owning railroad does to it during the course of its working career. As long as you have an appropriate frame, there's nothing wrong with fabricating the configuration you want. If you're after "original fabric," then it will start to get tricky because trucks, hoods, prime movers, etc, were frequently swapped out over the locomotive's lifetime. That's not even getting into the possibility of wreck repairs, which may mean your "original" high hood may not be as original as you think.

< Look at the SD40X. Only 4 were built.

Correction; there were 9 built. Eight for UP and 1 went to the GM&O. The GM&O unit is a resident of the Monticello Railroad Museum in Indiana. One of the ex-UP units (3046) is on the roster of the Wheeling and Lake Erie.

True. However, KCS's 4 production SD40X's were built on SD40-2 frames, making them unique. The previous examples were built on different frames. The GM&O example was also known as a SD35X.