sp cabforward 4274 in old sac

matt fisher

New Member
hi everybody
it was about 4years ago that i was in old sacramento watching them move a southern pacific f7a black widow still in primer brown , it looked like almost rust but it was n't it's still there today along with f7 b sp black widow unit or it might be for the rotary plow they have 2 there . but while i was in old sacramento i over heard the guys talkingabout the cab forward saying in may 2007 that they would move it to the shops , so they could put another exhibt in it place and someone elese told me that they could'nt because something was broken , what ever is broken can be fix today with technology and all the origanl steam era machine still inthe sp sac shops and the help from doyle mckormick i think it could be brought back to life wouldnt that great to see it pulling the dayligth over donner pass ,but you still have to keep in mind about how many years its been sitting in the museum , but look at daylight it to was sitting in park some people thought it could'nt be moved , but they did. so tell me what you think ,should someone start a fundraiser and a pation to get that thing back to opperatioanal status?
matt
 

jetrock

Member
I would be *VERY* surprised if the Cab-Forward was ever moved--it is pretty much the focal point of the outer part of the museum, and it is almost unthinkable that they would move it out--they would have to rip out a good chunk of the floor, replace the rails from the roundhouse area to the cab-forward proper, and then carefully get it out the doors onto the turntable in two pieces (the cab-forward and tender wouldn't both fit!) and then the question would remain, what the heck would they put in its place?

Not only has the cab-forward been sitting in the museum for 25 years, for 25 years before that it sat outside in Sacramento, having bits of it stolen and rusted solid. It would be a miracle of engineering to get it working again--and the CSRM has its hands (and budget) full just keeping up with the ambitious plans already in place. The cab-forward is one of the biggest draws of the museum: taking it out of the main museum, even for a restoration project, would be bad news for the museum, because that's one of the things that EVERYONE wants to see. There are a lot of great projects awaiting restoration in the Shops right now--not to mention restoring the Shops themselves and turning them into a public-accessible part of the museum.

You might be thinking of the SP passenger locomotive that is currently in the roundhouse, which used to be at Hunter's Point until recently--that one *could* be brought back to operational condition, at least more easily than the Cab-Forward.

The shops do not contain the original steam-era equipment: SP replaced those with diesel-era equipment, and when UP moved out, they took everything that could be moved except for a few things too heavy to move.

Maybe the F-unit you saw was the "visible diesel" that used to be over the turntable pit? If you haven't been inside the museum in a couple of years there are some new things worth checking out, like the aforementioned SP passenger steamer. It's a big 'un.
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
I don't think any of SPs cab forwards will ever run again for the same reason that the UP won't ever get a big boy running again. Those things burn so much fuel to operate that they make a challenger seem like an economy model by comparison.
 

MilesWestern

Active Member
Heh, I agree. Also, that Cabforward is THE last of it's kind, if it were destroyed in some accident or taken to the shops, and disassembled, a peice of history would be permanently lost!

As for the other (very servicable) SP loco, that is P-class Pacific #2467 (not #2472, although they're related!) That certianly has a future of operation ahead of it! It wasn't in steam too long ago, and boy, it's a great locomotive.

It's so great, it's my avatar, how about that! :)
 

jetrock

Member
The Pacific is most likely the beastie under discussion--it is in pretty good shape. It was a little dusty when they brought her in, but it's looking pretty bright and shiny now, and there is apparently some after-hours restoration work being done as it sits in the museum--but they would certainly have to take it to the back shop for the heavy stuff. And yeah, I'd love to see that under steam...the little Granite Rock 0-6-0 is cute, but a full-sized passenger beast would be a nice ride...now (speaking of other expensive things CSRM wants to do) if they could only extend the line of the Sac Southern a few miles south so one could really see what the 2467 could do!
 
Top