On Cab Forward locomotive’s, did the Engineer still run the train from the right hand side of the cab, or was it reversed???
Bob/IG
IronGoat:
Right hand, just like a ‘cab-backward’ locomotive. When SP ordered their first cab-forwards from Baldwin (the MC-1’s of 1910) Baldwin reversed the controls in the cab so that the engineer could retain his original ‘right-side’ position.
Tom
Thanks, Tom… I am putting a 0-4-0 Dockside Cab Forward together, and wanted to make sure the driver was on the correct side of the cab. (It’ll actually be a 4-4-0 Cab Forward after all the “surgery” is done)
Thanks again… Bob/Iron Goat
The class MC-1s (#s 4000 and 4001) were delivered (1909) as cab-backwards. Soon they were modified to become cab-forwards and reclassified MC-2. Fifteen more MC-2s (#s 4002-4016) were received from Baldwin in 1910, and these were built as cabforwards based on SPs modifications to the MC-1s. The engineer was always located on the right side of the cab, looking forward. The relocation of locomotive and fireman controls was one of the modifications to the MC-1s.
Mark
Mark–you’re right about the classification–MC2’s, not MC1’s. Sorry about that. For some strange reason I lumped the 4002 and her sisters with the original classification as the 4000-4001 cab-backward MC’s. According to a book I’ve got on the locos (THOSE AMAZING CAB FORWARDS) #4000-4001 weren’t converted to cab-forward until 1923. Which makes me wonder where SP used them until the conversion. Any ideas?
Tom
Tom, you’re right about the 1923 cab-forward conversion of the 2-8-8-2 MC-1s. That’s cofirmed by the Strapac/Diebert book SP Steam Compendium. My memory must have been confused with the immediate conversion of cab-forward 2-6-6-2s to 4-6-6-2 MM-2 class to correct stability-tracking problems. These mallets were changed from compound (both low and high pressure cylinders) to simplified (all high pressure cylinders) in the 1920s with their classifications changed to AM or AC series.
Mark
Mark
[quote user=“markpierce”]
Tom, you’re right about the 1923 cab-forward conversion of the 2-8-8-2 MC-1s. That’s cofirmed by the Strapac/Diebert book SP Steam Compendium. My memory must have been confused with the immediate conversion of cab-forward 2-6-6-2s to 4-6-6-2 MM-2 class to correct stability-tracking problems. These mallets were changed from compound (both low and high pressure cylinders) to simplified (all high pressure cylinders) in the 1920s with their classifications changed to AM or AC series.
Mark
Mark
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Dave–
Thanks for the information about the MC-1’s. I knew that Espee wouldn’t have put them back on the "Hill’, after all of that.
Another question you might be able to answer for me: I’ve got some photos in a Lucius Beebe book showing AC cab-forwards running out of Tucson during the War. Do you know if they were used any further east on the Sunset Route? Just kind of curious–I know the AC-9 2-8-8-4’s were used on the Golden State Route between El Paso and Tucumcari, until they were sent to the Modoc Line, but I’ve always wondered exactly how far east SP used the cab-forwards.
Tom
Tucumcari was the the divison between coal and oil operations, due to contractual obligations assumed as a result of the EP&SW merger 20 years prior pertaining to local coal companies in the Dawson NM area, coal dominated until 1948 or so…I presume that operations to El Paso are not beyond the relm of possibility for a Cab Forward, possibly during WWII…It would be interesting to discover if duel fuel capability (coal/oil) co-existed from El Paso to Tucumcari to support such a theory.