Rail Locomotives
In steam locomotive design, a cab forward design will typically have the driver's compartment (or cab) placed forward of the boiler at the very front of the engine; on a coal-fired locomotive the fireman's station remains on the footplate behind the firebox so as to be next to the tender, but on an oil-fired locomotive the fireman's station could be (and normally is) in the forward cab. This type of design was widely, though not commonly, used throughout Europe in the first half of the 20th century, often in conjunction with an enclosed body design and/or streamlining.
Visibility is greatly improved from the cab, and fumes from the chimney do not fill a forward cab in tunnels, but the crew's prospects in the event of a collision are worse, and if the driver and fireman are in separate places it is difficult for them to communicate, just as in autotrains.
Read more about this topic: Cab Forward
Famous quotes containing the words rail and/or locomotives:
“In my conscience I believe the baggage loves me, for she never speaks well of me herself, nor suffers any body else to rail at me.”
—William Congreve (1670–1729)
“The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
In the days of long ago,
Ranged where the locomotives sing
And the prairie flowers lie low:—”
—Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931)