Steam Loco Cab Design

[RichmondCommu]

G'day everyone,

Take a look at the steam locos built in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century and very little was done to protect the loco crew. I often think that crossing the S & C on a miserable night must have been horrendous on pretty much anything designed by the Midland Railway and of course they were not the only culprits! In my view the GWR were just as bad although at least most of their tank engine designs looked cosy.

Your thoughts on this would be much appreciated!

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!

 

[DaleCooper]

They usually had a nice big open fire to keep them warm.

 

[RichmondCommu]

They usually had a nice big open fire to keep them warm.

The problem is for a lot of the time the fire wasn't an open one! Not only that but their backs would have been freezing!

 

[341o2]

Or rather that people worked outdoors in all weathers. The horse drawn coaches the railways replaced had no protection for the driver or passengers on the roof.

Cornwall's first "True" railway - the Redruth and Chasewater never fitted cabs to their locomotives. Even a removable weatherboard proved unpopular, there were no brakevans, the guard rode on open wagons. Cornwall is renowned for its wet winters.

For some time, the police opposed fitting of windscreens to London buses

 

[ac6000cw]

The Amazon 'Look Inside' extract attached from O.S. Nock's 'Red For Danger' book tells you a lot about the attitudes to crew comfort - "apology for a cab" - and what was expected of them in the 1870s (it is from the section on the Abbots Ripton disaster which occurred in a severe snowstorm due to signals frozen at 'clear').

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The nice people over at Wikipedia say this:

"The earliest locomotives, such as Stephenson's Rocket, had no cab; the locomotive controls and a footplate for the crew were simply left open to the elements. However, to protect locomotive crews against adverse weather conditions, locomotives gradually came to be equipped with a roof and protective walls, and the expression "cab" refers to the cabin created by such an arrangement.

By about 1850, high speed Crampton locomotives operating in Europe already had a much needed windshield giving some protection to the footplate area. Some other early locomotives were even fitted with a cab as part of a rebuilding program, an example being the locomotive John Bull.

In Germany, the locomotive cab was introduced by the Saxon railway director and writer Max Maria von Weber. However, until 1950 the railway directorates of the German-speaking countries continued to believe that a standing posture was essential to maximise crew vigilance. Steam locomotive drivers, who had to lean out of their cabs for better visibility, therefore frequently developed occupational diseases, along with rheumatism, and electric locomotive drivers suffered from wear to the knees.

This unsatisfactory situation changed—with few exceptions—only with the construction of the German standard electric locomotives, which for the first time were equipped with crew seats. Meanwhile, the maintenance of crew vigilance became possible by technical means through the use of Sifa devices."

 

[BlythPower]

From the Wikipedia entry on the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway (The Stainmore Route):

Two locomotives, No. 160 Brougham and No. 161 Lowther, had been built for the line in 1860 by Stephenson and Co. with a 4-4-0 wheel arrangement and enclosed cab. William Bouch designed four more that were made in 1862; these were similar but without the cabs that were unpopular with the crews.

 

[Taunton]

I think thought about crew comfort was absent until relatively recently. And as described, some crews didn't care for an enclosed cab, particularly as it could become very smoky and full of fumes.

I recall a discussion about whether it was necessary at all to provided cab heaters on early electric locos (I think it was Manchester-Sheffield in the 1950s), and it was apparent from the official view that their chief concern was any costs of "unnecessarily" heating the rear cab through a heater being left on, which would be "wasteful", rather than anything to improve the lot of the shivering crew at the front.

GW tender locos generally went off shed with a canvas tarpaulin, which the crew would extend from cab roof top to the top of the tender if they wished. Bad weather was not so much a problem when running forward, and a front plate with spectacles windows was an early development, but if standing for any period, such as shunting, things were otherwise unpleasant in the rain. Worst of all was any extended run in reverse, where the weather (and coal dust) would get you straight in the face, which is why enclosed cabs came to tank locos before tender ones.

Steam locos in Russia and Canada moved on by 1900 to "all weather cabs", which gave very substantial protection against bitter sub-zero temperatures.