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Here is a photo of a real Cab-Forward steam locomotive.  Cab-forward steam locos were often used in long tunnels to keep from asphyxiating the crew with smoke fumes by moving the cab in front if the stack by running the loco in reverse.

cab forward 10

I will start with my homemade one.

Years ago I purchased a Lionel 2025 2-6-4 steam locomotive that came with a homemade enclosed cab and white wall painted wheels.  I left both intact.  The Lionel 2025 and 2035 are my favorite engines to run on my layout.

My closed cab Lionel 2025 with white walls

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Next was to make a hookup connector from the front of my 2025 steamer to the front of the oil tender at the tender slot coupling.  I know a Lionel 2025 2-6-4 is not a 4-8-8-2 which would have no chance of running on my O27 track !

Top view of sheet metal connector with tabs going on top of front wheel axle

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View of connector in action, it turns well and navigates my O27 Marx 1590 switches

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Lionel 2025 as Cap-Forward engine pulling oil tender (an oil tender must be used as there is no way to get coal from a coal tender to the fire box with the cab in the front of the train)

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Connector is strong enough to pull other cars after the oil tender

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The connector was quick and easy to make and works well.  It is a little weird to see a steam locomotive tooling around the layout backwards !

Lets see your Cab-Forward Loco

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie
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@bob2 posted:

That looks real.  

I have a collection of almost every variant except the "simpled" AM-2 and AC series.  Happy to post, but they are 2-rail and slightly oversize (17/64 scale).

I think you should post 'em! I was looking seriously at a fine 2-rail cab forward project a few years back but it never got made by the importer. FWIW, and IMHO, the AC-12 by Lionel is some of their best tooling ever.

What was the purpose of the cab forward?
The cab forward design was useful in the long tunnels and snow sheds of Donner Pass and other mountainous regions where it kept smoke, heat, and soot away from the operating crew, allowing them to breathe clean air in such enclosed spaces. It entered service on March 19, 1944 and was retired from active service on March 5, 1956.

not really true....................................................

Forney design

"Ariel", a Forney-type cab-forward locomotive: Front is to the left in this image (note location of headlight and "cowcatcher")

Matthias N. Forney was issued a patent in the late 1860s for a new locomotive design.[2] He had set out to improve the factor of adhesion by putting as much of the boiler's weight as possible on the driving wheels, omitting the pilot wheels from beneath the front of the boiler. Such a design would not have been stable at high speeds on the rather uneven tracks which were common at the time. Instead, he extended the locomotive frame behind the cab, placing a four-wheel truck beneath the water tank and coal bunker. In conventional Whyte notation, this resulted in a 0-4-4T locomotive, but when run in reverse it was effectively a 4-4-0T, with the track stability of that popular wheel arrangement, along with unobstructed visibility for the engineer, and improved dispersal of smoke and steam

I didn't realize that this was the photo album - I guess 2-rail is as good as any here.  This model was sort of incubated in the mid-1950s by an MRR construction article.  I had seen the giant AC series in action in Lordsburg and my home town of Fairbank, but never saw even a photo of the early MM class.

In the 1970s Bob Church published the definitive study of SP Cab Forwards, and from that I drew up plans for my MM-2.  In 1984, I decided I had to learn scratchbuilding, so with a hunk of steel exhaust pipe, a set of Lobaugh main frames, and some Max Gray drivers, I built this thing.  It ran perfectly the first time I put it on the track!

The 2-axle lead truck was a failure, and very shortly after the first deliveries of the Mallet Mogul class, Baldwin supplied a kit to change it to a 4-6-6-2.  As you can see, I built a model of that as well.

If you like these photos, I can post an MC-6, an AC-4, and an AC-8, also scratchbuilt in 17/64 scale.  Many of you have seen these before, but this is a nice thread to again post them in.Early backup Malleys 001Early backup Malleys 004

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That looks as good as 3rd Rail to me! I have never gone in for weathering, however.

I think I remember your other various models but if you don't mind please post them here as trying to find them via a search is not something I am likely to succeed with.

(Isn't 1/4" scale standard O scale? Or is that the point of your comment.)

Thanks.  Happy to repeat them.

1/4" Scale and O Scale are the same.  17/64" Scale is slightly larger, and is the proper scale for O gauge track.

Of interest - since a lot of 3-rail is not to any particular scale, the magazine title changed from O Scale Railroading to O Gauge Railroading when converted to 3-rail.

Our traditional 0 gauge track is gauged for 17/64" scale.

1/4" scale models should run on narrower gauges track like Proto 48 which I think is 1.17" if I am correct.

That is why our cylinders are overly wide on many models and why many truck side frames protrude.

Once you see a 17/64 model next to the same prototype in 1/4" scale you will really appreciate the difference that 1/64" makes.

I had a 17/64 model run on on of my layouts awhile back and it took some scenery out first time around!

Last edited by Tom Tee
@bob2 posted:

Thanks.  Happy to repeat them.

1/4" Scale and O Scale are the same.  17/64" Scale is slightly larger, and is the proper scale for O gauge track.

Of interest - since a lot of 3-rail is not to any particular scale, the magazine title changed from O Scale Railroading to O Gauge Railroading when converted to 3-rail.

@Tom Tee posted:

Our traditional 0 gauge track is gauged for 17/64" scale.

1/4" scale models should run on narrower gauges track like Proto 48 which I think is 1.17" if I am correct.

That is why our cylinders are overly wide on many models and why many truck side frames protrude.

Once you see a 17/64 model next to the same prototype in 1/4" scale you will really appreciate the difference that 1/64" makes.

I had a 17/64 model run on on of my layouts awhile back and it took some scenery out first time around!

Thanks both. This is all new to me, except the track gauge which is dimly familiar. Would like to see some examples of the slightly different scale especially if they are cab forwards.

I do know from experience that once you get inside a “quarter scale” model (I mean in particular an O scale passenger car interior, at least from Lionel or MTH and sometimes GGD), it’s really closer to S scale. Sorry, I can’t do the fractions in my head although I think it’s 1/48 vs. 1/64.

Those are really good looking models and exceptional scenery.

Here are the promised AC models - 17/64ths scale, but you have to look at the ends to see how they match the O Gauge track.  Even then, our treads are too wide, and the sideframes and rods stick out too far.  My original solution was 1 1/8" gauge, but I gave up on that about six decades ago.  Track width really looks good under my few 1 1/8' gauge models.  When I croak, somebody will really be irritated to find my Lionel 763 doesn't fit O gauge track.

boiler 008



boiler 009

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The one with the square tender is the AC-8, and my third attempt at scratchbuilding.  I got better at it over time - the lower one was about #12 or so, and features a wood block tender with brass overlays.  Trucks are not accurate, but they are cast from my masters in lifetime bronze, so they await a new owner for "correction" to the proper Commonwealth style.  Good luck finding Commonwealth in 17/64 scale.

There are a few more - notably the MC-6, a 2-8-8-2 with a rather strange haystack tender.  Later for that.

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