Steam & Excursion > After All These Runs Here, Who Could Believe This Was The Last?!

Over the decades since the original Southern Pacific articulated began running over Donner Pass, there were literally thousands of trips made with these steam giants. Each day dozens of the engines would move both freight and passenger trains over this line. No one thought their reign on this line would ever end. Well, one day, it did indeed end.

The date was December 1, 1957. SP #4274 was returning as train #27 from Sparks on a special occasion marking the very last run of a cab-forward. She is shown on a brief water stop at Colfax on the last leg of her run back to Sacramento.

When her fires were killed later that day, that would spell the end of Cab-Forwards on the SP. Even worse is the fact that #4274 and all her sister engines (except for #4294) were cut up for scrap. This leaves us little but photos and a few movies as the only legacy for these once proud steam giants.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/18 04:35 by LoggerHogger.

---

I came along after steam engines were pretty much gone so I never had any special affection for them or sense of loss when it comes to steam power. BUT if I could resurrect one steam engine for my own pleasure and watch it at work, it would be an SP cab-forward of any type. Something about the cab-forwards gets to me. Could it be those forward-facing cabs!?

John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/18 05:25 by Korigaoka1811.

Railroaders incorrectly called them Mallets, but I heard some people refer to them as "back-up" engines. I was lucky enough to see one on the Modoc Line just north of Fernley, NV and with the cylinders "behind" the drivers, they indeed looked like they were backing up.

Copy19 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Railroaders incorrectly called them Mallets

Weren't some of the very early Cab-Forwards actually Mallets? Maybe the name just stuck.

CPR_4000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Copy19 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Railroaders incorrectly called them Mallets
>
> Weren't some of the very early Cab-Forwards
> actually Mallets? Maybe the name just stuck.


Yes, the early Cab-Forwards were indeed Mallets. Case in point is SP #4002.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/18 07:30 by LoggerHogger.

---

The early class MCs and MMs were true Mallets. Most were later rebuilt as simple, classes AC and AM.

Jeff

After WWII and into the 50s we would go on vacation to Mammoth and other Sierra locales. We always stopped at a Richfield gas station in Mohave. There were cab-forwards everywhere.

Copy19 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Railroaders incorrectly called them Mallets, but I
> heard some people refer to them as "back-up"
> engines. I was lucky enough to see one on the
> Modoc Line just north of Fernley, NV and with the
> cylinders "behind" the drivers, they indeed looked
> like they were backing up.

My dad always always called them "cab aheads" when he worked for the S.P. during the war.

Weren't the first 4000s normal mallets with the cab on back of the boiler?

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Weren't the first 4000s normal mallets with the
> cab on back of the boiler?


Just the first 2. The 4000 and 4001 as I recall.

Martin

The rails here in Mojave called them "back-up Malleys."
I used to go to sleep to the sound of their air pumps when one or more was parked in the yard near our home.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

I saw one, pulling a freight, heading north towards Modesto-Stockton. It was when my family was visiting a plant nursery in Merced northeastern Merced, not far from the abandoned SP branch cut-off to Oakdale and very near the SP's bridge over Bear Creek.
I remember I could feel it coming before I say it. The ground was moving, and I new something dynamic, strong, God-like, monumental was about to happen.
And there she was.
A sight, sound, an awwww my God, happened.
That experience will stay with me for all my life.
I felt honored to witness a cab forward operating at full speed on the S.P., says I.

Here's a great shot taken during he excursion. Note the photographer on the tender. I think it is J Allen Hawkins. Pentrex produced a video called "Last Run of a Cab Forward over Donner Pass". It is one of the best I have!
Jack Bejna

Jack Bejna
Los Angeles, CA

---

On that other discussion board (AP), someone suggested getting the one in the CSRM running. My answer was for the same cost you could build it new, like the Tornado. If I won the lottery, that is what I would do. Then came the argument of where to run, UP's steam restriction, etc.

The front end always gave them the look of power (majesty?).
Old enough to have been there, seen that.

I remember these as they went from Sacramento to Roseville. The noise and vibrations I still remember from my house next to the tracks in North Highlands.

patd3985 wrote:

> My dad always always called them "cab aheads" when he worked for the S.P. during the war.

Yes, that's what railroaders called them. "Cab-ahead" also was the term used in SP Bulletins during the steam era, never "cab-foward" (I suspect some dumb railfan called them "cab-fowards" in a magazine article and we've been stuck with the name ever since).

I remember riding in the back of my grandfathers pickup when I was about 7 or 8. We were heading back to the ranch in Goleta on what is now 101. Back then it was just a 2 lane road that followed the tracks to Gaviota. A long freight was leaving West Santa Barbara headed west and there was a cab ahead on the point. That whole area from SBA to Hope Ranch had crossings at grade and had the short, upper quadrant wig-wags. Well we left him in the dust, much to my dismay, loved listening to it. Well, we were about Kellog Ave, the Goleta depot, when I heard a whistle. We were turning off at Fairview to head up the hill. Her came the train, like we were standing still, thru the double wig-wags hauling butt. Quite something to see & hear.

I had seen the Daylight a lot when we went to the Goleta depot for LCL or Railway Express, never a mallet. (I think my grandfather planned the "Daylight" time, that way to keep me quiet.) Then to hear stories from the old heads when I was working out of SLO really made the loop complete. I wished I had written down their thoughts. They were glad the steamers were gone and loved working on the diesels where they came home almost as clean as they went to work. Oh, one thing they said and from the fireman was they hated having to go back when running, to check on the oil level and how hot it was and how much water in the tender.

Silverthorne was a fireman out of the City and came down to SLO for the road experience. Well he went back at Surf to check the oil and acted just like he knew how. He gets back there and loosens the dip stick. Bang, covered in hot, bunker C. The tank was under pressure to get the oil all the way up to the front of the engine so it would flow right to the burners. You were supposed to turn off the air, bleed off the tank and THEN check the oil.


Nudge



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/18 16:13 by spnudge.

When this SP brat was growing up, the ACs were referred to as cab aheads or mallets, the two terms seemed interchangeable.

Two memories are burned into my brain when it comes to the ACs....first a 1949 ride aboard SP 57, the Owl, from LA to Oakland Pier....departure was at 1750 hrs, darkness came around the upper end of Soledad Canyon, with all it's right angle curves. Our power out of LA that night was double headed ACs....we sat on the left side in the diner and later in the Pullman lounge, and one felt like he could reach out and touch the power as it negotiated the many curves....flames in the firebox were visible. It didn't get any better than that.

Towards the end of steam, there were ACs assigned to the Coast line. Being close to The End, they suffered from poor or no maintainance, and, it seemed, every AC that passed through Atascadero had parts falling off, especially nuts, and who knows what they were meant to secure. I remember thinking they were overbuilt, or could not have survived the loss of so many parts and still run.

Who who has heard them can ever forget the iconic sound of those air pumps?

As the man says, "it's all crap now.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

juicejunkie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Pentrex produced a video called
> "Last Run of a Cab Forward over Donner Pass". It
> is one of the best I have!
> Jack Bejna

I highly recommend this video to anyone who likes Cab Forwards. Here's a link with more information:

https://www.pentrex.com/DVD-Last-Run-of-a-Cab-Forward-Over-Donner-Pass-DVD_VR039-DVD