33While not the 91 class you were talking about, here is a SAR 91 class GE UM6B for 24" gage with reverse steps. With my age and "extra ballast", this would be pure hell trying to hang on for too long - I've been on some freight cars with the bottom steps inboard but not as bad and they are a pain to ride any distance. I have seen other foreign locomotives with similar clearance issues. An avoidable very poor design IMHO.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Class_91-000_91-010.JPG
I believe the White Pass back in their freight days did remove the front pilots from several of the 90 class and limited them to being trailing units in a consist. It was found that too much snow was building up behind the plows and derailing the trailing units. Did the ALCos have rear plows or just pilots?
In the last days of running F-units over Donner Pass, SP started having issues with them derailing in the winter. It was discovered that since the units were scheduled for retirement they had literally been running the wheels off of them, and the worn wheels were letting the traction motors hit the ice core between the rails. They also discovered their brand new SD40s had plows a little too small and the fuel tanks were catching the snow and putting it under the unit. I know you have too watch Sumpter Valley's Heisler in the winter because its gear case is low enough it will try to high center on a road crossing covered in ice.
The only "real" EMD GP49s were built for Alaska Railroad in two orders (Southern's GP39X units were later upgraded to GP49 standards) and had stock EMD pilots and steps as delivered. Alaska Railroad replaced them with a homemade plow and ladder design. I don't recall Alaska doing any others beside the GP49s.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/56549799@N00/6900872953/
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2020 05:45PM by Dan Robirds.