A qustion on the British.

[Dusten Barefoot]

Why do most British loco's pull the train when they are in reverse?

[Mark Damien]

G'day Dusten,

If you're referring to running Tender first; the lack of a turntable on the end of a branchline meant you had to run the loco around the train & couple at the other end for the return journey. The locos used on these lines were designed to run that way, with low tenders so visibility & general working were not so bad. The weather, could be a little on the cold side though. 

Mainline engines did not run Tender first as a rule, which is just as well, due to the lack of visibility. In Preservation, you will see a lot of locos running Tender first as many of the turntables around the mainline are long gone. I'd guess the Preservation Engineers, get a little steamed-up about this, but when your driving a steam loco in reverse, I suppose you'd cool down a little.

In the latter British Rail years, many locos were fitted with BR1G or similar tenders which have cut aways each side of the coal hopper & rear facing windows & weather shields. 

The strangest tender[re bunker] first running, belongs to the Great Western Railway, where the loco was fitted for remote running. The loco was coupled Firebox first, as normal, to the coach. When the train arrived at the terminal, the driver went to the rear of the Coach, & there were  the remote controls for the loco. The fireman remained the the loco, which traveled Tender[re bunker] first behind the Coach to the other end of the line.

[Dusten Barefoot]

Wow! Thanks for the info.

[rogertra]

Couple of corrections to Mark's post.

Tender first running while not common, was not unusual in the UK.  Locos could been seen hauling both freight and passenger while running tender first. 

This could be very uncomfortable for the crews as the vast majority of UK steam locos, the back of the cab was exposed to the weather.   Even the cab itself could be somewhat rudimentary compared with North American cabs.

As for the Great Western Railway, "push-pull" trains were run with tank engines, NOT tender engines.  Push-pull steam powered trains, with the driver (engineer) in the passenger car's cab and the fireman all alone in the engine cab when in push mode was not unique to the GWR.  Some railways, the ex GWR and ex Southern Railway locos were set up for the driver (engineer) to operate the basic engine controls, throttle and brake, either pneumatically or with linkage from the leading cab.  The fireman would operate the cut-off and fire the loco as well.

[taz-of-boyds]

The Cumberland & Pennsylvania, one of my favorite little coal haulers in Maryland's past, had pilots on the tenders for a while along with tender lights because on the small railroad they spent a lot of time going backwards hauling coal and empties around in the Georges Creek area around Cumberland and Frostburg, Maryland.  They would interchange with B&O, PRR and WM.

Charles

[Woody Elmore]

Never mind them running backwards. they run on the wrong track - just like auto traffic - on the left, not the right.

Am only kidding - postings were very informative.

Cheerio and Merry Christmas.