If there is one distinguishing feature of steam locomotives that I never see discussed much, its the pilot. It seems that some road's pilots were made to some sort of individual design, almost as some sort of signature, identifier or indicia of ownership . One only need think of the Lackawanna's almost spindly looking pilot, the Reading's combo pilot/footboard, Pennsy's "chicken coop" pilot (too bad the 1361 can't be fitted with one at least once in a while). Of course there was the type of pilot used by the B&O was used by many other roads. CNJ, et al. These seem like they were "catalog" models. Yet later on it appears that when cast pilots came along, they were somewhat less individual to each road. I'm pretty sure I've seen UP's cast pilots (ala the fortunately still with us 3985 and 8444) on other roads' power and of course later C&O power's solid cast pilot seems darn near identical to 1218's current shnozzola.Any insights?

[quote="superheater"]If there is one distinguishing feature of steam locomotives that I never see discussed much, its the pilot. It seems that some road's pilots were made to some sort of individual design, almost as some sort of signature, identifier or indicia of ownership . One only need think of the Lackawanna's almost spindly looking pilot, the Reading's combo pilot/footboard, Pennsy's "chicken coop" pilot (too bad the 1361 can't be fitted with one at least once in a while). "chicken coop" that's a term I'm not fimaler with,which style is that? I like the postwar pilot myself. Dave

The prewar style with both the horizontal and vertical bars is occasionally referred to as a "chicken coop" pilot.