Quote:
Originally Posted by daepp
Wow - you learn something new every day.
I went and watched 3985 come through/down Cajon Pass, then raced to meet it at it's next stop - circa 1992. All this time I thought it was a Big Boy.
I'd seen 4014 at Fairplex, and had seen the cab-forward Big Boy in Sacramento, but still I thought 3985 was one of them.
Thanks for the info!
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The cab forward steam locomotives were pretty much a Southern Pacific Railroad thing. It was a way of dealing with the many tunnels on their line. They figured the crews would do better if they were ahead of the smoke. Pretty cool, distinctive locomotives. I believe they were 4-8-8-4's, mimicking the Union Pacific's conventional Big Boys' wheel arrangement.
