It's been a while since I have sen a high nose geep in person, but I have a couple on my layout. I've always wondered why some of the geeps were made with the high hood?
Depends on the railroad and era. Some used it for radio equipment, a steam generator, or dynamic braking. Norfolk & Western, Southern, and Norfolk Southern purchased high-nose units later than other because they believed they were safer for crews in a collision.
Siderod, you ever get a start on the 1/8 scale locomotive you was gonna build? Not sure if it was gonna be 71/4" or 71/2".Within the next year or so I am going to start a purchase of 4 Dash-9's from Mountain Car Company but they are going to cost more because of the custom add on's/options raising each one from $10,000 to about $12,000 each. Hopefully I can start a club down here in the south so those locomotives can pay for them selfs.
There are still a few highnose GP38 engines in service. The ones I have seen are still owned by the NS but have been put into remote control yard service.