Hello YouTube! This is the first video in a series covering SD402s and what makes them work. I've been a locomotive tech for just shy of two years and wanted to make a series covering some of the things I had to learn as part of my apprenticeship. This first video just covers some basic stuff and major components you can see just from looking at a locomotive.

A couple of additions I want to make:

1. This video is based on my experience with the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway's locomotives, if you work for a larger railroad, there are likely to be some differences between what I talk about and what you're likely to see.

2. In this video I tried to avoid using the words "front," "rear," "left," and "right" for a reason. Not all locomotives are set up the same way ours are. For a time some railroads cough NW cough ordered locomotives that were set up for "long hood lead" operation. The way to know for sure which end of the locomotive is the front, is to look for an "F" that's painted just under the running boards near each end of the locomotive. The "F" designates the front of the locomotive in terms of how the railroad operates it. We also rarely use the terms "left" and "right" in reference to the sides of a locomotive, instead we use "engineer's side" and "fireman's side" to refer to the right and left sides of a locomotive.

Thanks for watching everyone! The next video will be on wheel sets and journal boxes.