Steam & Excursion > The Face Of Pure Brute Steam Power May Never Have Looked Better!

Maybe it is the dark storm clouds gathering in the background, or perhaps it is the blunt face on her front, or maybe even the grime that is starting to appear from her trips through the tunnels and snowsheds on the line ahead. 

Whatever it is about Southern Pacific #4208 as she sits at Oakridge, Oregon on May 7, 1946, she exudes pure steam power.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/20 09:35 by LoggerHogger.

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That is one of the best lighting and exposure examples on B&W photography that I have seen.
I have faint memories of cab forwards from childhood, loud is the first thing that comes to mind.
With the exhaust behind the machinery I think they are more interesting to see and photograph, the plume of steam and smoke becomes the secondary to the front and the rod motion.
I do like the later version with the silver on the cab front.
Thanks for posting.

The Cab Forwards were an interesting design--essentially a 2-8+8-4 Yellowstone set up bass-ackwards.  I definitely believe that Oakridge, Oregon would have been one of the most interesting places in the steam days.  Time travel, anyone?

This locomotive probably got it's silver face during it next shop visit. 1946 is when they started applying the silver fronts and SOUTHERN PACIFIC replaced SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES on the tender, if it was applied.

Great engines, and were on all LA to Bakersfield passenger trains except the Daylights back in the day,
They also had their own distinct sound, especially when stopped. We moved to Mojave in 1948 and watched them until the end.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

In my SLO days I knew an old retired SP steam Engineer named Art Laidlaw. He said that he really hated driving those cab-forwards.
Bill Pyper
Lacey, WA
 

When I see a picture of a cab forward, the old joke about a dog being so ugly you shave it's butt and teach it to walk backwards comes to my mind.

For reasons I can'r explain I have become fonder of the flat face cab forards. They looked more brutish.

That looks great; but being from the east I would have to say a C&O H-8 "Allegheny" looks greater.
Thanks for the awesome cab forward photo posting.
ALLEN  

One day while visiting the California State Railroad Museum at Sacramento, I happened to look over at SP 4294 head-on from across the hall and was struck at how much it resembled an oversized interurban box motor.   I know it's not a spittin' image, but compare to C&LE 642 in this photo:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WKKdA_9YJbc/WJSlyRlsJsI/AAAAAAAADqI/EXyTaLxaq80SLRO9bknJQdMaxkrxT3zmQCLcB/s1600/cle642.JPG

wjpyper Wrote:
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> In my SLO days I knew an old retired SP steam
> Engineer named Art Laidlaw. He said that he really
> hated driving those cab-forwards.
> Bill Pyper
> Lacey, WA
>  
Art never ran AC's....he was a brakeman in the steam period.  He became an engineer in the mid sixties.  A really great guy.

Chris

engine3420 Wrote:
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> Art never ran AC's....he was a brakeman in the
> steam period.  He became an engineer in the mid
> sixties.  A really great guy.
>
> Chris

All I know for sure is that he said that he "Hated them." I didn't ask him why.
BP

 

This may be a reach too far into the past, but, here goes.....in my years in Atascadero ('51-'62), I was friends with a  kid named Albert Earl, his dad was an SP engineer out of SLO, and I can't recall dad's first name.  What I do recall is that he was involved in an incident that resulted in a "vacation" from work.....a slow speed heaad end collisiion.......I can't tell which of my "memories" could be correct, but I'm thinking the location was either up on the grade, or in/near Guadalupe.  Just wondering if anyone recalls Mr Earl or his collision?
By the time the AC's frequented the Coast Line, they had been banished from most of the railroad,  and it seemed the powers-that-be kept them going just long enough to be relieved by those much anticipated, and hated by me, diesels.  
When those beasts came through Atascadero, it seemed nuts, bolts, parts were falling off all along the way.  It made me wonder how they could complete their runs with all those missing parts.

AA

 

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Interesting thread now gentlemen, thanks.
The AC's had one fundamental challenge for the engine crews: going uphill the water flowed toward the rear of the boiler, away from the crown sheet.  
I sumise that both the engineer and fireman were very careful when checking the water glass. I can see that their sense of safety was greater with conventional power.
But the exhaust and their ability to breath and see had to be far better over the mountains with tunnels and snow sheds.
The two boiler explosion I know of were at Cooper, on dead flat track west of Salinas, and on the Syskiou line with 3% grades, which led to them being banned from that route.
Any others?
I have read that the WP offered their engineers the option of making one of their late steam era purchases a cab-forward design but they opted for the conventional layout.
Maybe that had something to do with the 1% grades vs. the 2.2% that the AC's operated on.
As for handsome, any fan of any RR can nominate their favorites, but I like Martin Hansen's taste myself.
It's all just for fun by now.

WW Wrote:
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> The Cab Forwards were an interesting
> design--essentially a 2-8+8-4 Yellowstone set up
> bass-ackwards.  

Not quite. The Yellowstones had that 4 wheel trailing truck to support a large firebox.
The original Cab Forwards had 2 wheel trucks which were quickly changed to 4 wheel trucks after more then a few derailments going into curves.

Love that photo! Had a picture of a cab forward on my wall as a kid.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

Alleghenys are awesome.  1604 at the B&0 museum back in 1995.  2-6-6-6.

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East is east and west is west, and running that loco over Donner would not have made her a favorite with the engine crew, assuming they lived through it!

I never was around one of those Allegheny's but I did get to experience the Cab Forwards pounding eastbound through Colfax. Earthshaking is the word that comes to mind.

John Mills

I read that the WP crews wanted no part of the cab-forwards because of being up front when they hit a rockslide.

SP engineer AT Earl.  Promoted on July 19, 1936.  Great engineer known as a good train handler and a kind man.  Good friend of my father (RL McEntire). Dad told wonderful stories about Albert.  Don't recall any stories of Albert in any wrecks. Nudge might recall.  JPM