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  • A question on locomotive cabs.

  • General discussion about locomotives, rolling stock, and equipment
General discussion about locomotives, rolling stock, and equipment

Moderator: John_Perkowski

 #1174959  by railfan365
 
Can anyone answer this: Why is it that most electric locomotives have a cab facing each way or a double ended steeple cab while most diesels have a single cab - including the ones that are bidirectional based on the engineer having a working view of the track in either direction?
 #1174995  by Allen Hazen
 
Guesswork here.

Electric locomotives were usually (lots of exceptions, no doubt) intended to work alone: one unit per train. Double cab (or center cab with equal convenience for operation in either direction) thus operations: no need for turntable or wye between runs. American freight diesels-- starting with the FT-- are intended to be used in multiple, so two cabs/unit is unnecessary. (Back in the early days of dieselization, some units were built with 0 cabs: B-units.) And cabs are expensive.
Note that railway systems with lots of single-unit operation-- think Britain, Europe-- have many two-cab diesels.