A number of deckless engines are around and even operational or close to being so. They include all six of the 2-8-2s on the East Broad Top and Strasburg's 475, an ex-N&W 4-8-0.

I understand some of the people who run the 475 have dubbed it "the telephone booth" because of that tight cab.

If you've had the chance to see the engine in person, you note that the fireman has to work from the tender (much like a Camelback, which was also normally deckless), and you note that the controls for things like the air brakes are mounted high, (also like in the cab of a Camelback). And in this engine as well as the little Mikes on the EBT (and Camelbacks, too), you don't want an engineer who's too fat!

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=623223

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1969003

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2298142

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=233704

Southern Railway 154 is deckless and runs on the Three Rivers Rambler, and the D&RGW 2-8-0's are deckless, the 315, 346, and the Knotts Berry Farm engines

Same goes for the S-160s (with original cab) and the RSD-1s. Obviously not designed to accommodate tall or fat people. On the RSD-1s, I had to lean in head first to enter and slide out feet first to exit. I'm 6'5" and there was no way I could stand in the cab except in the very middle.

I can't imagine a deckless cab would have been very comfortable for a fireman in Alaska either!

I'd bet in the winter of 1942, former ET&WNC 10 and 14 were very popular for the cabs being astride the firebox.
But yeah, it can actually get warm there in the summers. The first time I went to Skagway, it was in the 80s in the daytime.

About half of the Alaska Railroad S-160s (including 556, but not 557) had the cab widened. 557 was converted to oil firing so at least the fireman doesn't have to swing a shovel around.

I tracked down some more information on those locomotives. From an article in the Seattle Times of April 18, 1946 I got this:

The fifteen locomotives had been setting at the Army Service Forces Supply Depot in Auburn for six months and had been up for bid for a month. All had been shipped to Seattle from Alaska. Only four bids were received on the locomotives. "Three of the engines, 110 tons each, were sold for $1738 to the Dulien Steel Products Co. A spokesman said the company hopes to be lucky enough to find a customer in South America. Thirteen engines, each about 60 tons, were sold to M. Bloch & Co. for $5957.50. The company says they plan to scrap them."

Most of the additional railroad equipment at the Auburn depot, including narrow gauge cars, was sold to the Panamanian government.

I know 3+13 does not equal 15 but that is what the paper printed.

Also the two ex-Rio Grande 2-8-0s operating at Knott's Berry Farm.

(Yes, I know one is ex-Rio Grande Southern -- but it came second-hand from D&RG)

T&P 316 on the Texas State RR is also a deckless cab engine.

The strangest deckless engine I can think of is WP&Y 69. I can't decide if it's a camelback that caught it's cab on a tree branch and slid it back, or a D&RG consolidation that stopped fast and slid the cab forward... Whatever, it was apparently built to that configuration, but I have no idea why.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1334039

Builders photo of WP&Y 61. Note the handrail behind the cab.

Continuing with the deckless locomotives part of this thread. Another outside-frame 3' gauge 2-8-0. Here is a image of the one-time Morenci Southern #20 (built by BLW for Arizona Copper in 1903). It was later used by U.S. Potash near Carlsbad, New Mexico as #3. And now with the Southern California Chapter of the R&LHS display at the Los Angeles County Fair Ground in Pomona, CA.



Yes, the tender has a welded tank. U.S. Potash replaced the riveted tanks with welded ones on all three of its 3' gauge locomotives. The other two are ex-Death Valley RR; one is on display at Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley and the other in Carlsbad, NM.

The whole collection of views of the engine can be found at:
PacificNG.com image gallery #20 - Baldwin 2-8-0

Check out this engine that wound up on the Milwaukee narrow gauge:

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr1100/sk25.jpg

Previous thread where this was from; sadly, a number of photos that were there are now missing.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32529

The photo above shows the locomotive that became the 2nd number 2 on the Milwaukee Road's narrow gauge. A 1930 photo of that engine shows an extended cab. Also rather interesting in that photo is what appears to be some type of herald on the tender, which I cannot quite make out on my small screen.


Les

Here's another view of the same engine on the Catskill & Tannersville, but with the addition of a canopy over the tender for the protection of the fireman!

-Philip Marshall