Cab Forward in G scale

[Anonymous]

About 10-12 years ago, Row and Company made a limited number of brass Cab Aheads. They sold for $9800.00. If you can get your hands on an old copy of the October/November 1993 issue of Outdoor Railroader , there is one on the cover, and some shots of inside as well.

[TurboOne]

Matt,

Yes, after thing of selling and moving somewhere less expensive, I hear about their weather, and not being able to play trains. Do you belong to any train clubs here in town. Email me if you want.

Tim

[unclejoe009]

I would assume that the BIg Boy would also require at least a 10' diameter curve. Since the cab-forward and the Big Boy both use driver sets of 4 axels each, they should both require the same minimum curve. The Big Boy is in a slightly larger scale, so if it required something a LITTLE bigger I wouldn't be suprised. And isn't it nice Tim that when everybody else is inundated with snow, we can still play trains in sunny weather???

Matt

[TurboOne]

QUOTE: Originally posted by unclejoe009

Curmudgeon-
I think you have confused this with the Big Boy that USA announced which is die-cast and 57" long, I have not seen anything about a cab-forward by USA trains.

It was a big boy on their website. Looks pretty cool. But if the cab forward takes 10' diameter, wonder what a big boy needs. [:D] [:D] [:D]

Tim

[TurboOne]

Right you are Matt. Good to see another fellow SoCal San Diegan here.

For more info here you go:

The Sacramento division of the Southern Pacific had close to 150 miles of grades of up to 2.5%. On this Roseville - Sparks line over the Sierra Nevada there were also almost 30 miles of snow sheds and tunnels. Over the years, as trains grew in length, more powerful locomotives were required.
In 1908 the Southern Pacific ordered two 2-8-8-2 mallets classified MC-1 (Mallet - Consolidation) numbered 4000 and 4001. On a trial run up the "Hill" two problems became immediately evident. First, the great volume of exhaust gasses almost asphyxiated the crew. Second, the stack exhaust velocity was so great that it blew the roof boards off of the snow sheds. The second problem was easily handled by installing "stack splitters" (a deflector located above the smoke stack which directed the exhaust to the sides), as shown at the top of the image on the right. The first problem required more consideration.

Shortly after delivery of the MC-1s, an enterprising engineer decided not put up with nearly being asphyxiated or exposing himself to the tremendous heat and noise. He had the engine turned, hooked the engine pilot to the front of the train, and backed his locomotive over the hill pulling the train behind. This alleviated the above problems but created others such as pushing the tender ahead of the engine and the engineer being on wrong side for the signals. Other engineers began following this example.

A team of Southern Pacific design engineers came up with a plan and designs for a mallet with the cab in front, classified MC-2. Southern Pacific had Baldwin build 15 without testing one! Numbered 4002-4016, they were delivered in February and March of 1910. The engineer's and fireman's controls were shifted to opposite sides of the cab so that when run "backwards" the crew was on the usual side of the track.

Since the firebox on these locomotive was located in the front (far from the tender), they were designed to burn oil. Oil was piped from the tender along the locomotive to the firebox. The oil bunker in the tender on these locomotives was made air-tight and was structurally braced. They were slightly pressurized with air from the main air reservoir to insure a constant oil flow to the burner in the fire box when to the locomotive when traveling upgrade.

After the MC-2s had proven themselves, 32 more, classified MC-4 and MC-6 (MC-3 and MC-5 were skipped) were ordered. Before it was all over, Southern Pacific ended up with a total of 256 Cab Forwards (all classes).

Tim

[unclejoe009]

Ian-
If you scroll up you can see the picture of what a cab-forward was. Bascially to sum it up they were designed to keep the engineer and fireman out of the ash and soot blown out of the smoke stack by turning the boiler around, and moving the cab to the front of the engine. It would still fire the same, with water being injected into the boiler and fuel being piped up to the firebox at the back of the cab, which is now at the FRONT of the engine. If I'm not mistaken they were only run by the Southern Pacific, mainly on the west coast of the U.S.

Matt

[Anonymous]

What is a cab forward?


Ian

[Curmudgeon]

Might be.
I saw a flyer come through last week, thought it was a back-up Mallet.
I'll hafta find the flyer.
If a Big-Boy, surprising they'd do an Utterly Pathetic after all the licensing flaps.
TOC

[unclejoe009]

Curmudgeon-
I think you have confused this with the Big Boy that USA announced which is die-cast and 57" long, I have not seen anything about a cab-forward by USA trains.

[Curmudgeon]

USA Trains has a die-cast one announced, 57" long, DEC or Jan delivery, 350 units in first order.
TOC

[vsmith]

There was another one by a smaller company a couple years ago. I remember seeing it at the BTS and it looked closer to 1/29 scale. It was an earlier version cab forward than the one Accucraft is going to produce...I also remember the advertisment in GR. But i cannot rmember the company that produced it.

Have to flip thru some back issues.

[TurboOne]

Copied this from the website. Looks like 10 ft radius minimum.


Updated: 1/15/2005

ACL - CUSTOM BUILT BRASS MODELS
GAUGE 1
SOUTHERN PACIFIC AC-12 CAB-FORWARD (ELECTRIC)



TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Scale/Gauge: 1:32/45mm
Power: 0-24V DC
Minimum Radius - 10 Ft
Limited Production

ORDER INFORMATION

AL98-011 CAB-FORWARD SP #4274 W/ SOUND
AL98-012 CAB-FORWARD SP #4294 W/ SOUND
AL98-013 CAB-FORWARD SP #4274
AL98-014 CAB-FORWARD SP #4294

(All specifications and designs are subject to change without notice)

Copyright @ Accucraft Company 2003



Tim

[Anonymous]

What kind of Radius/diameter track would that take?

[TurboOne]

Thanks Matt,

they have one on their website, due out in August. Don't see a price, but I will email them tomorrow. The Lionel O gauge is $1549, HO is $499 so we will see what G is running.

Thanks again for the heads up.

Tim

[unclejoe009]

I believe Accucraft makes a cab-forward, but if memory serves me it comes with a nice price tag. But then again, what doesn't in our wonderful hobby?

Matt

[TurboOne]

I have searched the catalogs, and ebay. Has G scale had a cab forward made? If so any ideas who might carry one ?

thanks

Tim