Well, first things first… Howdy everyone. This is my first post on the board, but I know many , many more will come. I am failry new to the hobby, been in it for over a year now but I am hooked pretty deep. (yanked out tmy old childhood stuff one day for the kid and I to do somehting, and got bit by the bug, BAD)
In the past year and half, I have gone from my old Tyco stuff and 20 year old Bachman engines to my new MRC DCC, 2 Athern RTR GP 60’s, a Geni SD70, and for Christmas, A BLI AC-5 Cab Foward (from very loveing fiancee and Mom), which brings me to my question…
The nice folks at Broadway Limited included a small history sheet about the engine. It says though, that by 1949, all of them were scrapped and out of service. ( have since learned one survied in Cali) . But, in my quest to learn more history, I have found pictures, with dates on them from as late as 1955 of a Cab-Foward working and pulling…
I assume they were slowly pulled from main service as desiels came into play, but how long did they work? I am trying to now to put together a trian for it as most of my stock is more modern (the kid and I get a kick out of finding real engines and cars on the railroad that looklike ours. Great fully, he is 4, so any Blue Yellow or Green and Black looks just like “dad’s”) and I want to make sure I get atleast somewhat close for the ages of the cars. I enjoy pulling along train with the CabFoward, but some how, a 30 car inter-modal freight borrowed from the other engine might look odd to a few people…[:I]
So, any info how long they were still used would be great. Thank you for your time.
John K: One thing to keep in mind is that there were several different Cab-Forwards. The AC-5 was out of service by 1949, but the later versions ran until September 1958.
The sole remaining Cab-Forward, SP 4294, is an AC-12, the last of the series. It can be seen at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. More details here:
If you ever find yourself in Sacramento, do check out the Railroad Museum–not only can you get up close to the last Cab-Forward, you can even climb up into the cab and sit in the engineer’s seat! There are also many other engines and cars to explore, and a new toy train exhibit (with some model railroading examples on one end.)
If you want correct sorts of cars to pull with your Cab-Forward: 40-50 foot boxcars, metal or wood, would be appropriate–as would refrigerator cars (the ice-cooled kind), open-topped hoppers and gondolas, or flatcars in the 40-50 foot range. While cab-forwards were generally not used in passenger service (passenger consists tend to be short and light, seldom requiring the brute force of a Cab-Forward) it was not unknown–in which case either heavyweight passenger cars or 30’s-40’s “Daylight” streamlined steel cars would be behind it.
There were two basic types of Cab Forward 4-8-8-2, the AC4,5 and 6 and the later “Streamlined” (pointed cab front) AC7 to AC12 types. Your BLI locomotive is of the earlier type. The latest "out of service’ date for one of this type (AC6 number 4149) is December 1955. The later type lasted until late 1957.
You should avoid cars obviously past that date, eighty feet long Hi Cube cars and TTX TOFC cars, but many of the cars in the Athearn Blue Box range date back to that period and as long as you keep to road names of the period, no BNSF, BN, NS for example - fifty foot cars and similar will do. Probably stick to cupola cabooses rather than bay window examples.
Remember these hauled passenger trains on the steep grades out of Roseville! A string of green heavyweight Pullmans, or a two tone grey streamlined set would be OK.
Wow, thanks everyone. I didnt even think about the the different versions being retired early, but that makes sense. I do have some Pullman cars that I could use (they belong to an old uncle that was in the hobby pretty heavy hobby back in the 50-60’s). And yup I got my a Cupola SP caboose from a freind. Again, thanks everyone.
SP had quite a few cab-forwards, although the first two 2-8-8-2 articulateds (class MC-1 #'s 4000, 4001 ) were built with the cab in the conventional position (t
Aggro, that Cab Foward is incredible, Did you weather that? I have thought about weathering mine, for like 2 seconds. and then got all sweaty and the shakes and said the heck with it. Very, very nice.
Thanks. Yes I did. Its liken to an AC-5 a few years before scrap time. The weathering was taken directly from several in service Cabforwards from pictures and videos. Anyone who has seen images of the “mountain mallies” during the '50s can tell mine looks typical of them.
One more datum on the AC-4-6. A few of them were rebuilt w/ “prow” cab fronts (sorry, I don’t know the numbers). The surest sign of an AC-4-6 is the semi-cylindrical, as opposed to rectangular, tender and the Worthington BL feedwater heater under the running board on one side and the air pumps on the other side (as opposed to on the smoke box front, or rear, or whatever on the later engines
Well, I’d better chime in. The AC4 and 5 were the only classes of ‘modern’ cab-forwards with the air pumps on one side and the Worthington FWH on the other. The AC-6, though still using the cylindrical tender, was the first class to put the pumps on the rear (front) of the boiler, even though it still had the flat-faced cab (several were later converted to the streamlined cab). The AC-6 also differed from the 4 and 5 in that it had a heavier starting tractive effort, the same as the later classes (124,000TE as opposed to 116,000 for the 4’s and 5’s.). Even though it had spoked instead of box-pox drivers, the AC-6 was the true transition loco from the first ‘modern’ cab-forward (4 and 5) to the prow-faced AC-7 through 12 series (excluding of course, the conventional AC-9 cab-rear from Lima). It was also the first cab-forward to feature the famous ‘talking’ air pumps. In my opinion, the AC-6 was the most fascinating cab-forward of all.
Tom [:D]
from bobt ; this is my first post on this,or any other forum or list,so please try to over look any bad spelling and aimless ramblings. big john and other cab foward fans; pentrex has a vidio - dvd,last run of a cab foward over doner pass,on sale through 2-28-06 for 19.95. it features ac-11 4274 on a railfain trip pulling a train of 9 or 10 heavy heavyweights in the early winter of 1957. i have it and recomend it to anyone interested in big steam.