Double Heading Genesis Locomotives

That's because that, in the event that they hit something, the unit in the lead can be removed, and the second, trailing unit, is facing forward, and is able to continue the trip.

Hot Water posted:

That's because that, in the event that they hit something, the unit in the lead can be removed, and the second, trailing unit, is facing forward, and is able to continue the trip.

So was this something learned from the old days when A units faced away from one another ?

Dan Padova posted:

Hot Water posted:

That's because that, in the event that they hit something, the unit in the lead can be removed, and the second, trailing unit, is facing forward, and is able to continue the trip.

So was this something learned from the old days when A units faced away from one another ?

A factor back in the "old days" was, many railroads had the passenger units serviced, then would return on a passenger train, on the opposite direction, i.e. the A-B-B-A set was NOT weed or turned. Now, Amtrak pretty much wyes/turns the entire train, including the units, thus they are always "facing forward". Also, back in the "old days" there tended to be far less occurrences of idiots driving around RR crossing gates.

Makes sense, about the drivers too.  Way too many cars on the roads these days with more than their share of idiots at the wheel.....LOL

I wouldn't have guessed that entire trains are being turned around.  

THE EMPIRE BUILDER and LAKE SHORE are joined/split enroute.  Hence nice having both units in the same direction.  TX EAGLE and SUNSET also do some car trading in San Antonio TX.

Occasionally they don't face each other;

But yeah, most of the time they face the same direction.....but I wasn't sure why either, 'till I read this thread

Thanks for the replies.  Personally, I like the back to back look.  But hey, it's 2016 and I gotta get with the times.  The Genesis locos are not bad looking but nothing like the designs of the past.  

Dominic Mazoch posted:

THE EMPIRE BUILDER and LAKE SHORE are joined/split enroute.  Hence nice having both units in the same direction.  TX EAGLE and SUNSET also do some car trading in San Antonio TX.

This makes more sense to me than the train might hit something...How could you run a railway if you had to consider you might "hit" something.  

Running a business you have to consider every variable and the train hitting something is a very real and unfortunately all too common occurrence

"Elephant Style" operation was quite common on the Burlington:

I seem to recall it was more common than not on the Q.

Rusty

The Q ran elephant style

Greg, every 90 minutes in the United States, a train hits either a vehicle or trespasser. An almost daily occurrence for Amtrak.

Paul