Looks and sounds good, Bob
Looking good Bob. Is your engineer on the wrong side, or are the Guiford units some of the few High Hoods that had dual controls? I modified my NW unit to run long hood forward. It was a very easy mod…
(http://w1kbw.radder.org/MLS/SD45-01.jpg)
Jon,
Look at the F symbol on the frame. (http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures/4390/P9150006x.JPG)
That shows that the short hood is the front of the cab. So Aristo has it right on this model.
Right you are Craig. I haven’t chased down the lineage of this particular unit. From what I remember when researching my unit a long time ago, most all of the high hoods were built for Norfolk & Western and I think a few for Southern. A few had dual controls, but most were set up as long hood being front. Later in life some were modified by moving the control stand for operation short hood front.
There are a few pictures of Guilford running some SD45s lead-unit, long-hood forward, so I assume those are the NS units. Rare, tough. According to this http://www.rrnne.net/GRSLoco.htm 681 is ex-NW 1771, so it probably has dual controls.
After about four tries, I got a brass rod/wire insulation size pair that looks right for the firecracker antenna.
Looks great!!
You are correct that the N&W and Southern ran their diesels with the long hood forward. They said it was to protect the crew if there was an accident. I couldn’t tell you if that really made a difference or not.
…(http://www.freethoughtnation.com/components/com_comment/joscomment/emoticons/funny/images/smile.png)…
Sweet…
Yesterday in the mail I got the second GP9 dynamic brake fan (thanks, Craig!) plonked it into position to get a view of the overall look.
Need to flatten the tops and add some details, but thats the idea.
Craig Townsend said:
Jon,
Look at the F symbol on the frame. (http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures/4390/P9150006x.JPG)
That shows that the short hood is the front of the cab. So Aristo has it right on this model.Jon
this one is for you, you got me to looking, look for the F. mid 90’s
(http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv261/rich413_photos/st681a.jpg)
STOP THAT!
…puts hands over his eyes…
Thanks Richard 
Bob - You just have to pick a date and go with it. Anything that changed after that or was different before that date is someone else’s problem… Here is 681 as it appeared on Monday mm/ddd/yyy.
Hah hah…but diesels are simple and straight forward!
David Russell said:
Hah hah…but diesels are simple and straight forward!
Dpends on which end is really forward…
So is it done yet?