On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 07:19:11 -0700 (PDT), John D. Mitchell, Jr. wrote
> Good job Russ. But I do take exception to one small
> part. While the cupola may have been forward much of
> the time, there was no "normal" position for it. The
> waycar could be run either way and was. Most of the
> time, it did not get turned at the end a run. The
> cupola seats just got flipped over and the markers
> were hung on the other end. In my part of the world,
> most crews wanted the cupola to the rear when handling
> loaded coal trains, because it cut down the dust, they
> had to inhale (or so they claimed).
<snip>
This may be date-dependent - I recall a conversation with a Q freight
conductor in the late '50s or early '60s, when he stated that crews
definitely preferred the cupola to the rear. He said this was because of the
increasing height of housecars beginning around 1930 or so - the extra 20
feet or so back from the nearest car end definitely enhanced the forward
view. Many smaller terminals (such as branchlines) used wyes to turn the
locomotive (in days of steam and even later), and it was common practice to
take the waycar around the wye as well. At a terminal with a turntable, the
question of whether waycars were turned was somewhat dependent on the
cooperation of the roundhouse crew and the press of time. As servicing was
streamlined (in the years after WW II), the practice of turning waycars
became spottier (this may also have been influenced by the still-increasing
height of housecars, making the view advantage of a rear cupola less helpful.
As I recall (remember, I no longer have my library for confirmation) - this
tendency related to dates can be confirmed by sampling waycar-in-train photos
through the various eras - cuploa-forward photos before approx. 1945 were not
common.
Just my recollections for what they're worth -
Another point from the practical modeler's standpoint - if you like lighted
markers such as those from Utah Pacific (now Tomar, I believe), favoring one
orientation is helpful. With a 1 scale foot hole being drilled into the
carbody for installation, *our* markers are much tougher to switch than the
prototypes were!
Marshall Thayer
Mt. Pleasant, IA
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