Back Office. Here's a fireman's side view of the cab controls on the massive Spokane, Portland & Seattle Locomotive 700, a 220-ton Northern that "lives" in the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, in Portland. With her tender, this behemoth weighs in at just a hair under 400 tons. The 700 is an oil-fired engine and the primary control for that is the big, shiny firing valve that you see just left of and just below the center of the photo. The other big valves in the immediate vicinity control the fuel atomizer, blower and fuel heat. She doesn't need much of the latter these days, as she burns waste oil, which flows a whole lot better than the Bunker C she burned back in regular service. The Fireman's injector control is a big lever on the floor of the cab, just out of view on the bottom of the photo. The row of red valves up on top of the backhead provide control of the dynamo, the injector, train heat, the fireman's water glass and the turret. The big, brass gauge in the center is the primary steam pressure gauge, which provides indications on both sides. To the left and right of that gauge are the water glasses. FRA requires two of them these days. The primary throttle hangs from the big grey arc in front of the engineer's seat. The brake stand is directly below that. The Johnson Bar is too far forward to be seen from this angle. The engineer's radio and hand set can be seen above and behind his seat. Although it all looks a bit confused, it is actually pretty nicely laid out. The photo may not convey it well, but the cab is also pretty roomy, and with that nice, insulated backhead well forward, the engineer and fireman can see each other and communicate easily.....or at least as easily as it is possible to communicate over the roar this monster makes when she's at a full gallop!
