Southern Pacific Cab Forward Collection
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- The Complete Story of SP's Mighty 4-8-8-2 Articulated Locomotives!
For nearly 47 years, the Southern Pacific Railroad relied upon its massive AC-type steam locomotives to haul freight and passenger trains throughout California and neighboring states. Built to provide the power and flexibility demanded by the mountainous passes they traversed, these giants were constructed with their cab in front of the boiler, thus earning them the name Cab Forwards. The last Cab Forward revenue train ran in 1956, after which all but one were scrapped. From then on, film coverage of these AC-class engines was eagerly sought, hard to locate, and highly prized. Now, after years of research, Pentrex has assembled an awesome collection of footage and still images of SP AC-1s through AC-12s spanning the years 1927 to 1956.
My Great Grandfather use to run that last surviving cab-forward, that is currently in Sacramento, over Donner pass when it was operational
A cab foreword pulling a daylight engine! A MUST HAVE!
I think smaller engines in front of bigger engines, for example, 2472 in front of 4449, makes the train slower than it should be if the engines were reversed
M Chism yeah
M Chism yeah that happens in trainz to
Got to get SP #4294 running again, so it can pull #4449!
Climbing Cuesta Pass most likely
Really cool locomotives that run the southern pacific with there other cab forward only 4294 was saved
Nice overview of the cab-forward concept that the Southern Pacific developed (on account of the crew mission in long tunnels) long before General Motors got into it with the Electro-Motive F3. Both the SP's AC-9 class 4-8-8-2 Lima oil-fired single-expansions and the more conventional coal-fired Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Alcos were built for similar grades and loads
Happy 15 years to this DVD!
256 Southern Pacific Cab Forwards were build by Baldwin in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, only 4294 was saved
now that's a video I need to get. Loved the scene at the end whith the little boy getting all excited as the train passes.
When I first saw them, I was all like "Woah that is not right". But now I like them a lot.
Super Jesse 64 me to
I'm still baffled that a massive Articulated like this could pound the rails at such a speed. Even though I know the Challengers, Big Boys, and B&O EM-1s were known for speed as well. Makes me wonder why none of them were tried for the prestigious trains like the Daylights and the Sunset Limited. I know they had the alarm and the Owl on occasion, but surely with that much horsepower they could pull a proper streamliner.
The max speed on these were around 65mph.
Sad news as of October 21, 2022. Photographer Stan Kistler, who was in this movie/documentary/video, died on September 29, 2022. He was 91 years of age, and was one of the last living photographers of the golden age of railroading. May he Rest In Peace. His photography, especially of these Cab Forwards will remain forever.
That really sucks!
I wish southern pacific would have save more of the cab forwards like what Union Pacific did with the big boys
Southern Pacific #4294 is the only cab forward that survived, the other cab forwards were scrapped.
Andrew Crumb ikr that was dumb
i would love having 1 of these very locomotives because of the cab configuration
The Southern Pacific rr "Cab Forward" type engines were an impressive & unique class of articulated type steam locomotive and it's great to see that engine 4294 was preserved for public display, however I do wish that at least 3 Cab Forward were saved from being scrapped/ preserved though. I would love to see another member of the SP class AC-8,10 or 11 type engine class on public display still existing today instead of having all the engines (except the 4294) being scrapped with only 1 remaining sole survivor.
Awesome
Yeah, for the technical part! What I meant was about the beauty of steam, the sound it made, and the magic of the fireman job!
1:26, 1:30 were my favorite designs
0:59 Holy shit thats fast!
I kno that thing can probably outrun SP 2472 and 4449 combined
Lol yeah thats even an old one aswell (AC-5 or 6)
+M Chism Not likely, SP GS4s were actually among the top five fastest locomotives in the world for their entire career on SP.
In fact I think they almost achieved the world record a couple times until the LMS Mallard took the record and refused to give it up.
The speed you're seeing is probably footage sped up in post production, many old films are often sped up, sometimes intentionally, but usually just because modern equipment is designed for more frames per second, and with the older slower films it often compensates by playing the whole thing faster.
I realize this, it was a joke
Alexander Cox
Sarcasm is hard to detect on the internet, please accept my apologies.
AC-1'S THROUGH AC-12'S
0:59 Steam Steam Steam I'll pull the throttle for speed!
I really wish I could see one in action today
Tyler Bednarz me to
For a while the California State Railroad Museum did hope to steam up the 4294 but it would cost around $1.5 million usd. Not only that but the current policies with UP and BNSF would make it really difficult to run the locomotive since the CSRM would want to run the 4294 on mainline excursions.
Has me thinking that they may have been the beginning of the modern design in a ways. Has me wandering how their backs looked, and how lumber/coal/charcoal was fed, where to put water in.
They burned oil
a rare bird indeed
So that's what a cab forward's whistle sounds like.
woohoo yes I know
The Whistle sounds like SP 2472 (4-6-2)
Yep, usually Bunker C. A lot of US steam locos are oil fired.
GS Class helpers? Never saw a photo or read about that.
The AC-9 was in the 3800s not 3900s the 4-6-6-2s were renumbered 3900-3911 the AC-9s were from 3800-3811
Some times called back-ups.
@Rachmaninov08 It had to have been, the engines were limited to 55-60 mph due to counterbalancing.
3900 class AC-9'S
The SP AC-9's were 3800 to 3811.
1:20 3900? Don't you mean 3800
Southern Pacific Cab Forwards pulls freight and passenger trains.
@wooohooo771 I've heard Cab Forward 4274's whistle in a video.
The Zoniel Zone me to
"Wrong Way Drive"
Is there anyway I can find this online, like Netflix?
The kid at the end is like "the fuck is this weeb shit"
Cinders & Ashes Train weebs have Dreyfus Hudson body pillows
@:21 it also looks like a HO model train passing the Tehachapi loop.
TheAmir259 yeah it looks like
0:21
That laser noise it makes is blood curdling! If I was an engineer on a cab forward I would die from blood loss!
An amazing loco! An annoying noise!
If I had to make a guess it probably was the air compressors but they're on the smoke box so I have no idea
+Turkish Guy That's the air compressor, and they usually turned off before accelerating past 15mph.
Plus they were located all the way back on the smoke box, which was a hundred and twenty feet away from the completely inclosed cab.
You'd only be able to hear it if you stuck your head out the window and actively searched for the sound, assuming the compressors were even working at the time, which like I said earlier, they usually turned off pretty quickly as the engine picked up speed.
The Arctic Gamer seems legit
The Arctic Gamer Yeah I’ve learned a lot since my post. I’ve come to appreciate the noises the cab forward makes. Such a beautiful loco
カッコ良すぎる
I know
4294 is not the only surviving cab forward 4219 still works with gs-4 4449
Rockies Railfan but it’s the tender, not the engine btw
Oil!?!?!?!
What about the other Cab-Forwards? There wasn't any footage of the MCs, MMs, or AMs?
+Russell Streak
Not likely, MC's were converted to MM's pretty soon after being built, and the MMs and AMs were all scrapped before 1950, very little film exists of them, the oldest SP locomotive I've ever seen on colour film was an AC-1 which was only about ten seconds of the locomotive sitting idle on a siding.
To me, it looks like that bit of footage is slightly sped up. It seems to be moving too fast...
Shame I never saw one personally
ya
@ 21 seconds, that looks like HO Scale....
@ bcschmerker AC-9 are not 4-8-8-2. Its 2-8-8-4.
It should be one Cab Forward on hot metal no bad smoke. this is the return of steam. engeneers on diesel locomotives live 60y old steam 70y electric 85y hot metal 110y because it is a meditative locomotive. The nuclear power is obsolete in 3y. 1-2 mm for heating houses 30 - 40mm for locos.
Bye bye big boys...HERE comes some thing so awesome its better
LOL I JUST noticed that.
Oh..Well then it must've been something a bit less like a steam loco...!
I wonder how 4294 and 771 or 4294 and 2248 or 4294 and 2479 would go.
The world may nevner know, my friend lol
Rockies Railfan I’ll go with 4294 and 2467
@wooohooo771
Thats dubbed sound off a totally different engine unfortunately.
how on earth did the fireman shovle coal in the engine????
Gotthard68 Oil fired
They were oil fired
SP have now 2 cab forwards on hot metal? Completely free of smoke.
You also had some Atlantics. The first one that goes in this environmentalfriendly way has top speed 210, very good, but can be more if the wheels are better counterbalanced. It was difficult to track the grams when weighing the tons. Here is my cosmic testing (hope so) for the grams.
Left side front wheels 1 underbalanced 90g 2 overbalanced 30g
right side 1 u. 97g 2 u. 20g center of these small adjustments should be 5 cm inside the joint of wheel ring and the cast part of the wheel. (A locomotive wheel can normally not stand 500km/h) So dont put any streamlined hull on it. Now it will go 300km/h. I cant beleive that these small changes will make a difference, but try it anyway. Ask Gävle Järnvägsmuseum if I have been right on balancing wheels from a distance.
The Cab Forwards I have done already? 1? Well you see the difference. There is no good reason not to publish it here, maybe I have not been looking around enough? This is the return of steam.
1:10
0:59 - 1:02. THAT WAS TOO FAST!!!
Hate to break it to you, but it's just the tender...
Aku 😑😑 orang indo jadi gaktau 🤨🤨
To those asking about feeding coal, I'm told they cheated and used bunker oil.
It's oil or nothing. You can pipe oil to the firebox *that's at the other end*. Can't do that with coal.
+RedArrow73 Yeah, theres no way a cab-forward that massive would use coal and have that many locos of its class.
And, they also cheated this, they actually had a horn rather than a whistle
no coal, it runs on oil
This DVD is way over priced at $50
More Steam and SP at www.trainmovies.com