Steam & Excursion > All Dressed Up To Greet Southern Pacific's New Mallet!

Even in a railroad town like Sacramento, where locomotives of all kinds were common, the delivery of a new style of locomotive was reason to dress up with the misses and go down to get some pictures taken with the new beast!

Such was the case in May 1909 when SP #4001 first arrived from Baldwin at the SP Sacramento Shops. #4001 and her sister #4000 were the only 2 engines of the MC-1 Class of locomotives on the Southern Pacific. One of the engines sported a vanadium steel frame while the other was built with a carbon steel frame. The plan was to see which of the 2 materials held up better as these machines hauled trains of freight over Donner Pass.

Also new to this design was the incorporation of feedwater heaters into part of the boiler itself with a steam re-heater introduced between the high and low pressure cylinders. This was real innovation for the day.

Soon after the engines were placed into service on the Sierras over Donner Pass they proved to be deadly for the crews due to their heavy exhaust suffocating the crews in the miles of tunnels and snow sheds on that line. The escaping exhaust vapors exited the stack at nearly 450 degrees! Another problem was the long barrel of the boiler severely hampered visibility for the crews in the curves of the Sierra grades. Soon the 2 engines were reassigned to the Beaumont Grade on the Los Angeles Division where no such obstructions existed.

These 2 locomotives would prove to the SP that the design and power of the Mallet would work on the heavy grades of Donner pass, but that one last innovation was needed to make them successful. You guessed it, move the Cab-Forward!


Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/14 04:11 by LoggerHogger.

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"That's no moon, that's a low pressure cylinder!"

This picture is a reminder that there was a crossover period between late model superpower steam and 19th century steam. Here we have turn of the century, pre-WWI Edwardian fashion, and a very large compound locomotive.

-M

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

yet another great picture and one that argues for keeping people in the frame......love the youngster. thanks Martin. Arlen

You gotta love the man working in the smokebox,pretty much oblivious to all the shenanigans going on down on the ground.

Grampa looks like he slept in his suit.

-E.O.

The lady's hat looks like it would have made a nice salad!

Soooo... Was the vanadium steel better? Enquiring minds can't be left hanging.

Posted from iPhone

Ya, but gramps has one hell of a stash

Didn't the 4000 and 4001 eventually get rebuilt as cab forwards? If so, when, and who did the rebuilding?

lynnpowell Wrote:
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> Didn't the 4000 and 4001 eventually get rebuilt as
> cab forwards? If so, when, and who did the
> rebuilding?

Morrison-Knudsen?

-E.O.

lynnpowell Wrote:
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> Didn't the 4000 and 4001 eventually get rebuilt as
> cab forwards?

Yes.


>If so, when,

??

> and who did the rebuilding?

Sacramento.

They weren't too much more satisfactory as cab forwards. Same for their 2-6-6-2 mallets. The smoke situation was, of course, improved, but they had trouble keeping the Hodges trailing truck (the one under the firebox) on the track when run with the cab ahead. It wasn't until they applied 4 wheel trucks that had a really successful design.

-John

BCHellman Wrote:
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> lynnpowell Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Didn't the 4000 and 4001 eventually get rebuilt
> as
> > cab forwards?
>
> Yes.
>
>
> >If so, when,
>
> ??
>
> > and who did the rebuilding?
>
> Sacramento.