In The Cab

[WembYard]

Won't bore you all with the details, but I have probably had cab rides on most locomotive types that were around in the UK during the 1980s and early 1990s. Many of these were "official", despite not being train crew I had many trips acting as "pilotman" during a procedure called single line working where somebody from the operations side has to ride on the locomotive.

There were also other trips as back in the "good old days" the railway was like one big family so if you needed a lift / dropping off anywhere, then it was quite possible that somebody would help you out. Things are very different these days

I have also been lucky enough to have a few cab rides in various other countries, usually on special charter trains but, like the UK, things like this are much more tightly controlled now.

BTW, anybody visiting my favourite line, the RhB in Switzerland, can have a cab ride on certain sections, see HERE – you just need to take out a mortgage first!

[JRMDC]

Originally Posted by WembYard

I have also been lucky enough to have a few cab rides in various other countries, usually on special charter trains but, like the UK, things like this are much more tightly controlled now.

Aha, this reminds me, I forgot one! Sometime in the '90s I was visiting in Tours with my wife and my host talked our way onto a train going from the suburban/modern/TGV station to the old/nice/historic downtown station (stub end). Just a short ride but under catenary and it was a lot of fun. Should a negative scanner ever fall into my lap, along with requisite time, I might have an upload ...

J

[Freericks]

I have not had a lot of cab rides in my life, to be honest... I tend to like being on the ground shooting more, I think...

Anyway, off the top of my head...

Southern 2-8-0 #630 (in Alexandria Yard)

Philadelphia, Bethlehem & New England SW1200

Southern Pacific GP40-2

SW8

[nikos1]

My list isnt that impressive but ive logged a good amount of miles and hours in the first 3. Atleast its all good old school power.

PhotoID: 275081 Photograph © Nikos Kavoori

PhotoID: 293858 Photograph © Nikos Kavoori

EMD GP10 Athens Line Railroad
EMD GP30 Athens Line Railroad
EMD SD40T-2 Squaw Creek Southern RR
GE U23B Georgia Central RR, For a few yards
EMD SW8 - Museum
Oh and a Boeing 747 in the days before 9/11 and it wasnt a national security issue to let a kid see the fancy dials and levers that make the plane fly.

[Joey Bowman]

Gp9, or is it a gp7? Dont really know, even more confusing half of my photos from these rides were labeled gp7, the other gp9. Dont really care in the end.

PhotoID: 306388 Photograph © Joey Bowman

PhotoID: 278183 Photograph © Joey Bowman

2-8-2

PhotoID: 241211 Photograph © Joey Bowman

4-6-0

PhotoID: 210467 Photograph © Joey Bowman

I have been in a handful of other locomotives but I will refrain from mentioning them.

[JimThias]

-SD40-2 for about 100 yards.

Thrilling, I know.

[coborn35]

SD-18
SD-M
SD-45
F9
FP7 (original demonstrator)
GP30
NW-5
4-6-2
AC4400CW
GP38-2
SD40-2W
P42
RS-1

[Joe the Photog]

I didn't take any stills, but I rode in the cab of the L&....... OK, New Hope & Ivyland 2-8-0 #40. Oh, and I was getting paid for it by the TV station I worked for then.


Pre-digital and pre before I knew what I was doing with a camera, I rode in the cab of an EMD SW900 on a passenger run. Both were fun.

[Ken Carr]

Okay let's see, just a few
Union Pacific RR - SD-70M, SD-70ACe,ES-44AC, SD-40 series,SD-90
BNSF: Dash 9's
Nevada Southern: SW-1000

[crazyro]

When I was about 8 or 9 my dad (who was and still is a big cheese for CFR - Romanian Railways) took me in the cab of this type of loco. The engineer even let me blow the horn for a few crossings. Total trip took about an hour (Timisoara-Arad), but for a kid, it was something that cannot be forgotten.

[Tgranville]

A few for me.

GP38-2
SW1200
E9A
And an SD60I from Pittsburgh to Altoona back in the CR days.

[Freericks]

Can't believe I completely forgot... a Budd Metroliner (the original MU type) on the Northeast Corridor back when a kid's grandmother could walk up to the conductor and say, "My grandson likes trains, can he go sit with the engineer?"

My grandmother and I then found ourselves in the cab (which was made for one person, so it was pretty tight with the three of us up there).

I basically interviewed the engineer, because I thought that was what I was supposed to do (would have really been content just looking out the window).

Man, I remember that speedometer... while I cannot attest to this because it was something like 35 years ago, I'm 99% sure it hit 113 mph... at least, that's the number that sticks in my head.

[stevenmwelch]

Lets see.. Does it count as a cabride if I'm getting paid to run the train?

UP:

SD70M
SD70ACe
ES44AC
GP38-2
GP15-1
SD40T-2

BNSF:
C44-9W
SD70ACe (Does it count if I work while on it?)
ES44AC (Same as above)

Amtrak:
P42DC (too many to list)
P32-8BWH
F59PHI (about 9 or 10 rides)

4-6-2 (2472)
California Northern GP15-1

That's all I can think of right now.

[DWHonan]

Cab rides have never really been that big a deal for me, but I have had three that were memorable:

• Catskill Mountain Railroad RS-1 #401 (back when it was green), going about 500' from the Kingston shop to what was then in 2000-ish the end of serviceable track at the first grade crossing. This was my first time both in a cab and up-close with an operating Alco. The CMRR crew has come a long way since then.
• Amtrak P32AC-DM from NYP to ALB; nothing like sitting in the left seat with a big 106 on the speedometer and the Hudson River rushing by out the window. *
• Amtrak F40PH from ALB to SYR on the Maple Leaf not too long before the type vanished from active service. *

* - Arranged through my employer at the time

[chuckman]

I've been inside one S6 and RS32. Other than that, I've only been in touristy engines.

[Freericks]

Originally Posted by DWHonan

Cab rides have never really been that big a deal for me

I hear you, Brotha...

[crazytiger]

Originally Posted by stevenmwelch

Lets see.. Does it count as a cabride if I'm getting paid to run the train?

UP:

SD70M
SD70ACe
ES44AC
GP38-2
GP15-1
SD40T-2

BNSF:
C44-9W
SD70ACe (Does it count if I work while on it?)
ES44AC (Same as above)

Amtrak:
P42DC (too many to list)
P32-8BWH
F59PHI (about 9 or 10 rides)

4-6-2 (2472)
California Northern GP15-1

That's all I can think of right now.

Who do you work for, if you don't mind my asking? Amtrak?

[stevenmwelch]

Originally Posted by crazytiger

Who do you work for, if you don't mind my asking? Amtrak?

My father works for Amtrak as a manager back in California... I work for a contractor in Missouri that takes BNSF coal trains.

[milwman]

If it's not going to get over 40 I don't want to get on, Thats where it gets fun. Riding an Amtrak RDC at 79 MPH was a blast, as was a ICG GP10 GP40 at 65 MPH. Switchings a drag. Running a train in Notch 8 With 3 GP10s Up Counsel hill was fun as a guy can have back in the 70's.