I have a question about cab forward steam locmotives. I dont model steam and I dont intend to but I was wondering how they get the coal from the tender to the firebox on a cab forward? Wouldnt the firebox be on the wrond end?
Cab forwards are oil-fired. The oil flows in a pipe.
They were oil fired. 
While it is true that all SP cab-forwards were oil fired, Adriatic Southern Railway of Italy (later part of Italian State Railways) did have a cab-forward 4-6-0 that was coal fired. Coal was kept in bunkers on the side and the tender only contained water.
http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/italy/460.htm
You could actually get a model of it: http://www.top-train.it/toptrain.php?ln=de&id=670_671
Andre
Easy answer - they don’t!
All the cab forwards were oil fired, with the oil pumped the distance to the firebox.
Thanks for the information, always wondered. Like I said Im not a steam guy but its nice to learn other aspects of this hobby.
Around 7 pounds of pressure was required to move the heated oil the length of the boiler, one duty the fireman had to perform was to release a vent valve on the tender when refueling, if this simple feat was ignored he was rewarded with a face full of hot bunker C upon opening the hatch!
Dave
Wouldnt the firebox be on the wrong end? <<
From people mostly uninformed in quite appalling ways I’ve heard this actually did cause at least one serious misunderstanding when a shop foreman asked a gang of fitters to “take off the smokebox door” . What he found taken off when he came back was the entire rear end of the outer firebox ! and allegedly the only thing he wondered was how the men had managed to do it while the boiler was in steam . No joking : scale , it appears , must have been abounding …
gg
= J =
They were unique beast that required some adjustment from the norm among shop forces and the crews that operated them.
Dave
Juniatha
As you generally cannot remove the back-head without stripping all the cab fittings and possibly even removing the cab itself and given that the instructions were issued to skilled tradesmen who would be very knowledgeable on the workings of a steam locomotive, I find your story impossible to believe.
Unless you can provide irrefutable proof, I think this is just a modellers myth.
.
From a Google search.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cab_forward
Booting a small oil fired loco.
http://www.sdrm.org/faqs/hostling.html
Probably the first USA, oil fired loco.
http://www.ironhorse129.com/Projects/Engines/NPC_21/NPC_No21.htm
Rich
Sounds like one of those stories that abound in any trade, that the old hands tell the new guy on the first day.
–Randy
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My last job was a mechanic in a couple different paper companies. Many times a new worker came to me and asked for the paper stretcher. I would hand him a device used to clamp onto a large piece of sheet metal. Worked every time.
Then there is the bucket of steam. lol
Rich
Yeah, we used to send the new girl/guy to the shop for a box of vanishing points!
-Bob
A favorite in the engine room (seagoing) I used to work in was `entropy grease.’
I handed the senior watertender a can of graphite grease - and got to skip my next turn cleaning rose boxes. The guy who argued with him took that turn…
Chuck (Long ago Merchant Marine cadet modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Ah but , Dave , you’ve noted for sure this was a joke , didn’t you ?
[;)]
= J =
But of course!
Dave
My MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) in the army was as a truck driver. I drove everything from jeeps to ten ton tractors. I also helped out in the maintenance shop. A common trick they played on newbie mechanics was to have them tear down the top of an engine in a deuce and a half or 5 ton M818 tractor or M54 cargo truck. Their job was to find, remove and inspect the muffler bearings.[:-,] Another good one was to have them tear down a CV joint and remove the caster bearings. No such thing in a CV joint. They have ball bearings.[(-D]
Roger
I believe so too - it would be hard to believe - although I’d believe guys able to take off the rear end of a boiler in steam would also able to take down a cab hands down .
Yet , who said you’d have to believe it word for word when it’s joke with a slight general reference to ‘impossible’ things having happened and still happening where technical machinery encounters certain peculiarities of human minds …
= J =