I have noticed in my research of MILW F units (T's, 3's and 7's) that some of the earlier models show what appears to be a three piece pilot around the front coupler. It looks like pilot on either side of the coupler opens out, and the lower cover drops down. On other units, the pilot appears to be a solid peice of casting. Anybody (IE-Boxcab) have any knowledge on this? Thanks, Mark
Am thinking that what you've described, is a "passenger" pilot. Don't believe it served any real purpose. Just streamlining for appearances. Like the pilot on S-3 #261. Sound like a reasonable explanation to you? Boxcab E50
The "passenger pilot" noses were so the coupler could be retracted and the plow would be smooth so if say the high speed Hiawatha's hit a vehicle or something at grade crossings, it wouldn't get hung up on the coupler and derail the locomotive since alot of them in and around the upper mid-west would get up to 85-100 mph in some places!! Same reason the 261 has a pilot like that. By the mid-fifties or so, when the passenger bussiness was dying off, they started removing the doors and fixing the couplers solid on the pilots for less maintence.
Kurt, I noticed a few photo's of the passenger F's and they didn't even have doors on them, they were solid all the way around!
