High hood Tracing its origins back to the Alco RS1 and then EMD GP7 models, the high hood feature would be standard on the first hood unit locomotives built. Later designs would chop this feature down on the short hood, but maverick railroads like the Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western would continue to order their locomotives with this high nose feature. The Southern would purchase all locomotives with this design up through their last EMD GP50 order in 1981 and equip most of them with bi-directional control stands to facilitate the running of the locomotive either long hood forward or short hood forward. While the numerous reasons such as crew safety, union contracts or time saved in not having to turn locomotives at terminals exist as to why the Southern continued to purchase locomotives with this feature, the one thing that is certain is that high hoods certainly made Southern Railway locomotives stand out amongst the other railroads.
