Steam & Excursion > While Not The Region She Was Designed For She Still Does Her Job!

When we think of Southern Pacific's fleet of Cab-Forwards we naturally bring to mind Donner Pass with it's miles of snow sheds that prompted the need to place the crew and the cab in the front ahead of the heat and gasses coming out of the engines stack.  But, as we know, these cab-in-front articulteds were used all over the SP system.

In this 1954 view SP #4256 has been assigned to helper duty on Altamont Pass in California.  She has been cut in in front of both her own caboose and that of the freight she is assisting for the push over the Altamont grade.

Even though there are no tunnels or snow sheds to worry about here, her crew still enjoys fresh air all the way.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/18 03:01 by LoggerHogger.

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Thank you Martain. Still remember seeing one of these giants going through the Los Alhambra depot about 1952/53

Wayne Crabb
San Gabriel, CA

Well, technically there was a tunnel on the east side of Altamont Pass so this cab forward was doing what it was designed for, although a bit of overkill for that lone tunnel.

LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> She has been cut in in front of both her own caboose
> and that of the freight she is assisting for the
> push over the Altamont grade.
>

Referring to "her own caboose,"  why was it required ?
Crew size ?  Back up moves ?   other  ?

Sure wish I could have seen a cab forward in action.
Thanks as always for your posts.

All the reefer blocks came out of San Jose where the helper was added...At one time before diesels begane toarrive, one could see almost any thing as road and helper power, Eldon Lucy caught a reefer block out of San Jose with a pair of 2-6-0's cut in ahead of the caboose....WB helpers in many cases cut off at altamont andran lite to Newark where they would help aSF train over Altamont.. At one time altamont was a very busy place and this all changed when the freeway's began to take place.

The caboose was for the helper engine am thinking it was required for its crew. Some one on that?

Last LA assignments were as helpers up San Tim, cab position was important in viewing the orange trees.

Out

The helpers out of SLO didn't need a train crew. They had switchmen at Margarita to cut the engines in or out and to take one around the wye. Same with SLO.

Nudge

That shot of 4256 is another negative that went AWOL from the E.K. Muller collection at the Western Railway Museum Archives.  It wasn't in a booklet, didn't have a number, and is a different aspect ratio (3:2) from Muller's usual square format 120's, so it may have been a trader.  Muller did, however, shoot a number of trains from that angle on Altamont, the style is consistent with his, and his notes certainly suggest he took the shot himself.  He gave the date as August 31, 1955 and identified the train as No.406 with GS-2 #4410 on the point.  Whoever took the shot must have engaged in some pretty frantic driving, getting to Carroll Rd. and the north side of the tracks in time to capture this image of the head end:

 

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