Road Switcher Locomotive
A road switcher locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive designed to both haul railroad car, railcars in mainline service and Shunting (rail), shunt them in railroad yards. Both type and term are North American in origin, although similar types have been used elsewhere. A road switcher must be able to operate and have good visibility in both directions. As a road engine, a road switcher must be able to operate at road speeds, with suitable power and cooling capacity. It has high-speed road trucks rather than low-speed switcher only trucks. Modern road trucks are always equipped with "frictionless" roller bearings, whereas switcher trucks were almost always equipped with "friction" plain bearings, until plain bearings were outlawed in interchange service on both railcars and locomotives. Overview For the reasons given above, road switchers are generally hood units. The set-back cab of a hood unit provides more safety in the event of a collision at speed than most switche ...
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