[N&W] Re: All-weather-windows

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

The "window boxes" were put only on the engineer's side.  If they were on
both sides, the engines had dual controls.  N&W didn't know anything about
them until the Wabash/NKP mergers; some union folks clamored for them,
saying that they needed them for switching in bad weather when it was
necessary to look back for hand signals.

Having performed those operations both with and without the "window boxes",
my feeling is that the union boys wanted them just so the engines would be
more expensive - any way to get the cost up, even a little bit, was seen as
beneficial by the unions.  I'd just as soon have done without them.  If a
trailing unit had a window box, you had to stick your head out in the
weather to see around it anyhow, because it was all you could see just using
the rear window box of your unit.  A plain old window with wind wings and a
window shade did me just fine, and I've worked engines with and without in
blizzards and rainstorms both.  You might be a little colder and/or wetter,
but for my money you could get the job done quicker and get out of town with
the windows closed and the heaters running.  In good weather, they could be
an awful inconvenience.

- Flem Proddy (for the Ol' Curmudgeon)
_____________________________________
The contract N&W had with the Lake Region engineers (former NKP)
required these windows.  They were NOT a permanent addition to
the locomotive, as I recollect, because the contract specified a date
when the windows had to be installed.
                                                           Harry Bundy
______________________________________
Why did the N&W use all-weather windows?  Because it snows in the mountain 
around Bluefield in the wintertime.  And on the ex-NKP around Chicago and 
Cleveland its gets very, very cold.  I think you will find that the window 
addition matched the control stand type in the locomotive, single or dual 
control stand.  If you have Bob Bower's  Diesel books or an N&W or NS loco 
roster listing, these will tell you what the control stand set up is.

Gary Rolih