Niagara pilot "wings"

The new fourth qtr. Central Headlight has a great frontal photo of Niagara 6011 on the cover. And for the first time I noticed that there are small "wings" welded to the cast pilot on either side. On checking lots of other Niagara photos I found that they all had these, except the 6000 when it was new. They were later added to the 6000. I found a picture of a new 6001 and it had the wings. I have not found any Hudsons or Mohawks with the additions. Does anyone know what purpose these additions served?
The "wings" are discernible above the pilot steps in these photos from the Canada Southern website.

I don't mean the elephant ears or smoke deflectors. By way of explanation, it appears to me that the Hudsons, passenger Mohawks and Niagaras all use the same cast drop-coupler pilot. Since these additons never seem to have been applied to the Hudsons or Mohawks, I'm curious as to what purpose they served on the Niagaras.
The additions I'm asking about look like they are made of 1/2" steel plate and are about 6" wide and 20-22" high. They are located on each side of the pilot between the pilot steps and the pilot beam. In the Central Headlight photo you can see clearly that they are welded to the side of the pilot in three places. They overlap the pilot beam slightly but are not attached - if they were welded to the pilot beam, the bolted-on pilot could not be removed.

Could they be a step or platform for the brakeman, hostler shopman to do maintance??????

Rob

Not that I want to hijack this thread (and I'm certainly curious about those "wings" or fillers), but did anyone else happen to notice that 6002 is ripping along on WELDED RAIL?? And both adjacent mains are also CWR?? Considering how CWR didn't really start going into track on most railroads until the late 50- early 60s, this is pretty unusual. This shot is probably 1950-53.

Chief Troll, any comments or light to shed on this? Any idea where? I say west of Buffalo- looks like the NKP main over on the right side, past the pole line.

Hi, NYC Dave

Lacking any documentation about that detail I'd guess they may have been there in connection with the smoke deflectors, maybe it was believed the air stream would become ever so slightly improved with these - uuh - spoilers, if you want to say so.

Hi, H.F. Malone

Geee - that's right! Interesting! But as far as I know NYC had high standards of maintenance on their busy mainline tracks, didn't they?

Juniatha

My apologies NYC_Dave.

The modification in question appears to be welded to both the pilot and the pilot beam, the reason for which I can only speculate:

By its design, this piece appears to protect the cylinder cocks from debris that may cause disabling damage in the event of a collision, at a road crossing, or otherwise.

This was likely a one-time experiment, probably not repeated because of the relatively short service life expected, pending dieselization.

that only came to my mind later:
Didn't the Niagaras have lateral motion device on the first coupled axle. So, the lateral displacement of the front pilot was larger in a given sharp curve than that of the Hudsons or the Mohawks (if the Mowhawks didn't have that lateral motion device on the first coupled axle).
Adding these little plates may have been a simple answer to the pilot not covering surface of inner rail in such a curve lacking the desired protection against objects.

Juniatha