Hi Everyone, I have some late 1950's Kadee boxcars, and I was wondering if it would be OK / Reasonable to pull them with a SP Cab Forward. I'm loosely modeling an HO scale layout with no specific RR in mind, but I would like to remain somewhat plausible with the equipment being used in combination. I also have a few early 1960's train cars [1962 and 1963]. Would those be OK to pull with the SP Cab Forward? Many Thanks!!! Matt
You could do it. It all depends on your railroad. the SP ran their last Freight Cabby in 56, for reference, but the MRR Police aren't gonna grag ya to room 22 for mixing cars of a few years difference. Heck, I'd run a Cab Forward in Steam Excursion if I had one!
I just joined this board, then right away saw this post and had to comment. In mid to late '56 we moved to a small town on the SF Peninsular. The SP depot was only a few blocks away, so like any normal kid, I started hanging out there to watch the trains. One day, I noticed a steamer rolling north towards San Francisco. It turned out to be a huge (to me at the time) and amazing engine with the engineer in front pulling what seemed like a mile of PFE reefers. I had no idea what it was. I just knew I had seen something really different. I had never seen or even heard of a cab forward at the time. It took a trip to the library to figure out what I had actually seen. Unfortunately, it was the first and last time I ever saw one under steam. If I'd only had a camera.
What a treat that must have been: to experience a Cab Forward in service. I have always marveled at the Cab Forward design. Unfortunately, the cost to buy a BLI HO scale version, so far, has been too high for me. Eventually, I do plan to get one even with my late 1950's rolling stock and a few 1960, 1961, and 1962 cars lingering about.
One clarification, the BLIs are midrange prouction, AC4-5. The most likely to see in the late50s was the AC12, the Intermountain design (which pulls like an Nscale handcar... Actually, I've seen one work pretty well) Me, I'm building my own design. Cal Scale makes this lovel brass piece shaped like an AC 12 cabface. I's designed to fit into the back of a Docksider (I dunno why, it just does) but I know of a Bachmann 4-8-2 shell that's getting a new drive in a new direction. Actually 2 drives, the other one is going under the tender. But that's no SP
