Unidentified Appuretnance on Engine Pilots

[NW Mailing List]

Don’t know if it had a specific name, but it was a system installed on a variety of locomotives in yard service. Generally, I’ve not seen it much of anywhere but Roanoke, but I suspect they had it in Norfolk and Portsmouth as well.

https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=34333

I always heard it called a talk-back system.

They do show up in photos of the rear of some tenders.

There is also a large box (I assume battery?) and a motor-generator applied to various locomotives. You can see that on the tender deck in these photos:

https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=79445

https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=84144

From that drawing, looks like April 5, 1957 from the drawing.

Best
Ken Miller

> On Feb 12, 2021, at 4:30 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Attached is a crop from a photograph of the 2105 at Bluefield in 1958.  Note the device indicated by the arrow.
>  
> In the late days of steam, I saw these on a number of engines.  A number of the Y-class engines assigned to Roanoke had them, and I think a few S-class engines may have had them as well.
>  
> They seemed to resemble a speaker of some kind.  They were always located on the front end, on the Engineman's side and at about the right height for a speaking device for a man standing on the footboard.
>  
> Does anyone have the proper name for these devices, know how they functioned, and when they came into use ?
>  
> -- abram burnett
> Gas Lighted Turnips, LLC
>  
>  
> <N&W_Eng 2105_ Bluefield_ March 21, 1958_UNIDENTIFIED APPURTENANCE ON PILOT.jpg>________________________________________
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