Thats not all thats not prototypical. Still nice tho and better than what I have.

Built that way. As far as I know, all the SP P-8 4-6-2s were oil burners straight from the manufacturer.

Thanks for the info.

I live in Artois and my school is at willows

@@tobster367vb9 You two have so much in common.

truebras I was surprised too! It wasn't mine so I'm not sure if any modifications were made. That was their second run of the cab forward. The club is located in Chico California. If you're ever in the area look them up! I've moved since then. It's called the High Sierra Model Railroad

These engines were actually oil burners. So instead of shoveling coal the fireman would regulate the flow of oil to fuel the fire

Haha nailed it!

This layout is located in Chico, CA. Its called the High Sierra Model Railroad Club. I was a member there when I was going to school. If you're ever in the area check it out!

wetdog707 Thanks for the info.

+ByrdMann2010 SP didn't paint road names on Cab Forwards assigned to the Shasta route(aka Donner Pass), since SP4252 is painted in the pre-1946 scheme, it can be assumed she was assigned to a division where they still did need the roadname and hadn't repainted her yet(Most likely Mojave, where they needed roadnames to distinguish from ATSF and UP trains, and they did often put off painting their locomotives to new specs after 1946.) Since SP was the only class 1 railroad to ever use Cab Forwards, and most of the routes they operated AC's on were exclusive SP trackage(such as the Shasta/Overland route seen in the video) They decided to save on paint and just not have roadnames applied to the locomotives who operated there. #4280 was initially assigned to Donner Pass, so for most of her life she bore the unlettered tender. Later in her career I believe 4280 did receive a large letter "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" on her tender, not because of reassignment, but because the regulations concerning lettering and identification changed in accordance to increased safety precautions and the gradual decline of steam usage. Since less locomotives needed the paint for the "Safety Strip"(the big silver band on the pilot of Cab Forwards) more paint could be used as extra identification. one final note, while no official documents exist that state an exact size of the roadname on the tender, the average size of the "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" written on the tender seemed to get increasingly bigger as the years progressed, if you compare for example; AC-11 #4274 in 1952 to 1957. In 1957 the font is noticeably larger, to a point where it almost looks like a completely different scheme.

+The Arctic Gamer dang, thank you for sharing! That was some awesome information. I had guessed the reasoning behind the lack of lettering had to do with that fact that no other railroad used cab forwards but it makes even more sense when they were used on divisions where SP was the only railroad. Thanks again!

wetdog707 We SP foamers do like any excuse we can find to nerd out on Cab Forwards.

wetdog707, the Shasta Route is actually Roseville to Dunsmuir; Donner is a part of the Overland Route: San Francisco to Ogden. Units assigned to heavy tunnel work did not receive any tender lettering because the level of soot accumulation developed through a Sierra snow shed or Tehachapi tunnel quickly obscures light colors on any class of locomotive (even in the 80s, many SD45T-2 appeared black from soot), making corporate identification moot - this is seen in photos of ACs working the Sacramento, Valley, Shasta, and Portland Divisions. Also, savings had nothing to do with letting: The aluminum safety paint was a system-wide adoption, post WWII - ACs received it on their pilots, and standard steam locomotives received it on the fronts of their smokeboxes. SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES (white paint, not aluminum) disappeared from tenders, system-wide following WWII - Lines would not make a return to corporate letterhead until after the 1988 merger of the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. and Rio Grande Industries. SP valued Safety, but large logos played no part in public or employee safety - that was up to horns, whistles, bells, signs, and the signals department. If you want some good information on Cab Forwards, watch Cab Forward Collection from Pentrex and/or read Cab Forward, by Robert Church. You'll learn about everything from the MCs to the ACs - fun stuff.

+riogrande5761 You are correct and I wish it was mine! It belongs to a friend of mine

+wetdog707 The Walthers SP wood cabooses can be had for around $40, without lights of course. If you shop around you might be able to find one for 30 or less. I picked one up at closeout prices at a train show for $16 - the version with all capitol letters (introduced about 1951 from what I read. The version with the orange ends was around 1956 and going forward.

Thank you. It is HO. It's a freelance model railroad club depicting a "shortline" through the Sierra mountains. Even though we say it's a shortline there are quite a few large mainline engines that we run on the layout. We don't have any specifically themed trains, I wish we had the City of SF or the Zephyr.

Yeah, those two passenger trains would look great on your layout. Wish you had more trainmeets in the clip. Kudos on not having noise in the background or people walking around. Have you checked out Bill Roger's clips on his amazing SP in the Cascades HO scale layout? He runs the Shasta Daylight on his layout.

iceeking2006 Thank you very much! It's hard to get uninterrupted shots at a club sometimes. I'll try to add more meets in my next large video I make. I sure have seen his stuff, he has an amazing layout. I would kill to be able to run my cab forward on that layout!