RE: PC: ex NYC GP35s - nose doohickey

["Jim Kosty" <j_kosty@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

That is an Automatic Train Stop generator unit.  I am not sure what it does 
as a part of the system, but I know when they had the ATS system in 
operation, it required an engineer to acknowledge any signal displaying a 
restrictive indication by depressing a button or lever (called a 
forestalling lever) in the cab.  If a signal indication other than a clear 
was not acknowledged within a prescribed time (I believe an audible alarm 
would sound for a certain number of seconds), then a penalty brake 
application would stop the train.  The engineer would have to get off the 
locomotive and reset the system on a box that was usually located above the 
truck on the underframe sill below the cab.  The system required the pickup 
shoes you see on the lead trucks of NYC and other railroad's diesels that 
used ATS, as well as the inductor unit mounted on the ties outside the rails 
just outside an interlocking or prior to a signal.  The generator unit on 
the side of the nose of these locos was another necessary part of the 
system, however I cannot explain what role it played in the system.
Jim Kosty
Corning NY

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