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Cab-in-Front By John Hungerford Half century story of unconventional locomotive
Cab-in-Front By John Hungerford Half century story of unconventional locomotive
Cab-in-Front By John Hungerford Half century story of unconventional locomotive
Cab-in-Front By John Hungerford Half century story of unconventional locomotive

Cab-in-Front By John Hungerford Half century story of unconventional locomotive


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Cab-in-Front By John Hungerford Half century story of unconventional locomotive
 
Cab in Front By John Hungerford   The half century story of an unconventional locomotive.  
Soft Cover
Copyright 1974
36 pages
Soft Cover
CONTENTS
FRONT COVER Westbound in Santa Susana Mountains                                                                      
 Design by E. S. Hammack                                                                                                
Photography by Stan Kistler
OPPOSITE                                                                                                                                       
Descent on the Tehachapi-1940                                                                                                                   
By Walter H. Thrall
PAGE 3                                                                                                                                                    
AC in Sierra Snowshed and Smoke Splitter Initial Letter By E. S. Hammack
BACK COVER                                                                                                                                        
The Beginning and the End Nos. 1 and 4294 on Permanent Display at Sacramento -Southern Pacific Photo
The Half-Century Story of an Unconventional Locomotive


SOME DAY THE STORY of the golden age of American railroading-the period in the earlier decades of the twentieth century-will be completely chronicled and when it is a portion will certainly contain allusion to an unconventional creature which flourished in the West for close on 50 years. It belonged to a strain as rugged as the mountains responsible for its inception and it never strayed from the boundaries of its western habitat. Neither did it, in all the days of its usefulness, leave the corrals of its owners nor carry the brand markings of another ranch.
That was the Cab-Ahead locomotive, conceived by Southern Pacific and born of necessity. Otherwise called the Back-Up, Cab-Forward, Cabin-Front, Cab-Fronter, Cab-First, Stack-in-Back, it was as distinctly Espee as the familiar herald showing the rails vanishing into the sunset. Throughout some 35 years 256 of these monstrous machines came west from the Baldwin works to serve S.P. diligently and well. No articulated Cab-Aheads ever operated regularly on rails other than Southern Pacific's. No other railroads adopted them, yet they were not freaks and their success as products of the minds of men unafraid to break with the past is one of S.P.'s best chapters.
There was something about the Cab-Aheads that struck a popular fancy, both among laymen and railroadmen. Possibly it was that note of nonconformity, a departure from accepted practice in design, that made these locomotives such favorites. They were not always thought of that way; when first introduced their crews were unwilling to ride in a front-end cab. They argued of the danger to engineer and fireman in head-on collisions and crossing accidents, but these objections soon passed.


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