Cab config?

Question

In US. isn't there any diesel or diesel-electric locomnotive that features driver's cab at both end

Why does electric locomotive with pantograph feature both end driver's cab and why it is not for diesel or diesel-electric locomotive?

Answer 1

Not that I know of, some railroads had diesel/electric locomotives with a cab that had controls on both sides for operating either direction but only one cab.

The Milwaukee electric "Joes" had what appeared to be a cab at either end but the back end was not a cab, it held equipment for the passenger trains or nothing at all.

The Milwaukee "boxcabs" were a multiple unit with controlling cabs at either end and a slug or cabless unit in the middle. On the opposite end of that scale were the Milwaukee "Bi-Polars" that had a cab unit in the middle and power units at either end, I never saw one of these, they were operated only on the coast division but in photos they were very handsome sets.

A lot of the earlier EMD deisel sets were configured with the cab/slug/cab set up, especially for passenger service and were all painted matching. Some of them were very attractive indeed.

You have to remember that maintaining a locomotive cab is not cheap for a railroad, the air brake system alone is expensive and needs to be maintained and tested frequently, add to that impact resistant glass, seats, radios, heaters, refrigerator, toilets, etc etc and it is not cost effective for railroads to maintain cabs that are redundant.

Personally I wish the railroads would eliminate the cabs on about half their current older locomotive fleet and take the savings on upgrading their remaining cabs, having 3 or 4 cabs that barely meet federal standards in one consist just doesnt make sense.

Answer 2

It doubles the cost of maintaining the controls and brake systems.  And since most trains need 2 or more units of locomotive, you can accomplish the same thing just by facing the two end units tail to tail.

Electric locomotives are a lot more powerful than diesel-electrics.  Therefore it's much more likely that an electric will be the only locomotive unit on the train, especially in passenger service.  Turning around a locomotive is harder and harder because with the end of steam locomotives, there's no reason to maintain turntables and wyes.  So electrics are a lot more useful with two cabs.   Even many small steeplecab electrics have two cabs, such as this little guy

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.ph...