One million pound Steam Engine, Southern Pacific 4294
Vložit
- čas přidán 14. 01. 2022
- The Southern Pacific 4294 was one of the largest steam engines ever built.
Weighting in at over one million pounds it is a beast of a train engine.
Southern Pacific 4294 is a class "AC-12" 4-8-8-2 Cab forward type steam locomotive that was owned and operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). It was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in March 1944 and was used hauling SP's trains over the Sierra Nevada, often working on Donner Pass in California.
No. 4294 was the last of 20 Southern Pacific class AC-12 4-8-8-2 cab forward locomotives in a larger series of 256 Southern Pacific articulated cab forwards starting with class AC-1. Articulated locomotives are essentially two locomotives sharing fire box, boiler and crew. The front locomotive has its cranks quartered 90 degrees apart. The front and rear drive axles are free to roll out of phase with respect to each other. If unloaded, the locomotive has a vertical oscillation, near 50 mph, that can lift the tires above the rails.
Its most distinguishing feature was that the cab and firebox were at the front of the locomotive instead of the traditional rear. This was done essentially by running a 2-8-8-4 machine backwards with appropriate modifications. The engineer and fireman swapped sides and faced away from the firebox. The tender remained behind the locomotive to maintain the improved forward vision; this was possible because the locomotive burned Bunker C fuel oil rather than coal, so the fuel could easily be piped from the tender to the firebox, unlike a coal-burning locomotive. The smoke box end coupling was strengthened. The power reverse lever (Johnson Bar) and steam throttle motion direction were reversed. The drive wheel axles were also reversed, end for end without rekeying the return "fly" cranks, to reverse the expansion link timing on both sides.
Conventional Walschaerts return crank position in red
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.
I'm glad this engine survived
Me too, it's amazing in person. What a beast!
Yep
My father worked for the Southern Pacific for over 40 years. So my sibling and I spent a lot of time around trains and rail yards. My father, grandfather, great uncle, brother, and my husband all worked on the railroad.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a train engineer.
The last Cab Forward was a sole survivor.
The last surviving Cab Forward locomotive, this locomotive type was exclusive to the Southern Pacific rr and was an interesting design for unique steam engine performance and appearance.
I would have loved to see this beast roll by.
I was a young boy in Livermore, Ca. and I am so pleased to have memories of many cab forwards traveling through Livermore to Pleasanton and down the Niles Canyon. I was little, it was big and i remember it did shake and make a ton of noise.
I'm so jealous of you. I would love to have seen this beast run.
I visited this locomotive in 1985. I spent an entire day in that place and could have spent a week there. Have always wanted to go back. The day I was there, the cab was closed for some reason I do not remember. I'm not sure the platform was there. So I have always wanted to see how the controls were reversed. I wonder how the engineer and fireman communicated. I have seen the 4014 twice. The first time there wasn't much of a restriction of how close to get, but it was amazingly hot. The smell of very hot metal filled my head. It is indeed an amazing beast. Thank you for going into the cab for me.
I to love locomotives/trains and have ever since I was 5. I'm 58 now. There's something about them that my kids don't understand. I'm drawn to them when I see them. Thanks for watching and commenting. I like your bike, I ride too.
If I ever won hundreds of millions of dollars in the lottery I would restore this engine to operational condition and run it!
Great plan, I hope you win!!!
@@Bayareaandbeyond777 Thank you, I’ll let you know if I do🤞🏻
Same here
@@K-Effectdid U win? is 1 years now
Hi there South African here we haven't had mainline steam trains since the late 80s however we do still have many regular heritage day trains. We used steam for a long time due to the vast amounts of cheap coal available 😊 great video 🇿🇦
Along time ago I saw a TV show about that. I thought it was so cool that you have all the steam trains. I want to visit you some day.
Thanks for watching.
The creator of this video stated that he grew up in Capitola, CA. I lived in Capitola in the mid 1950’s and remember the steam trains that came through town as they traveled between Davenport, Santa Cruz and Watsonville. During the summer SP used to run the Suntan Special between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. It was usually powered by two light weight Mikado (2-8-2) steam locomotives which was quite a sight traversing the trestle in Capitola.
My God I'm jealous of you. To see steam trains going over the trestle would have been amazing.
I filmed a Capitola video this summer. Check it out on my channel. Thanks for watching and your story.
My late father, who grew up in Los Angeles, California in the 1930s and 40s tells stories of seeing Southern Pacific cab-forwards engines both on trains out on the road....and occasionally street running right in downtown, where you could sometimes see them pulling cuts of cars on Alameda Street between the various urban yards. As big as one of those beasts look in a museum, imagine sharing the road with one!
Wow, that would be very intimidating driving next to one of those beasts. I wish I could time jump. Thanks for your story.
I hope Southern Pacific Cab forward steam locomotive 4294 Will be restored and be operating for excursions Someday
That would be awesome! Fingers crossed 🤞
Yeah that’s not gonna happen. I’m usually on board for full restoration I’d love to see a cab forward run again but it’s highly unlikely. 1 because of the design and 2 because it’s articulated. Aside from 4014, 1309 etc, the reason we don’t see many mallets or simple articulated operating today is because, it’s hard enough getting a conventional steam locomotive up and running again. You throw in a second set of driving wheels and it becomes more complicated and the cost increases a lot more, due to the size and extra parts. You add on the fact that this is a cab forward and it’s designed to travel in reverse and that the tender is permanently coupled to what is usually the front, so that’s a whole ANOTHER pile of shit. Also I can’t think of a single engineer in todays era that even knows how to operate a cab foward
They should revive this Railway Jewel🤩😍🚂💎.
My God that would be awesome.
ESPEE had alot of tunnels in their system.Donner,Tehachapi and Cascade Lines
As well as the original SEVEN CUESTA GRADE TUNNELS which finally connected northern and southern California VIA RAIL..1894. An amazing feat of engineering!!!
A couple of corrections, they burned oil, not because coal was in short supply, but because with the cab forward design the tender following there would have been no way to shovel coal into its firebox. Oil could flow. On the UP what gave rise to the cab forward design was the problem discussed smoke would fill the cabin. A attempts were made to couple the loco and tender backwards to the train to put the smoke behind the crew but that meant particularly with long articulated locomotives they ran essentially blind as not only did you have the bulk of the loco but its tender as well. The conductor in the cab mentioned a Big Boy in the East, it is in non-operating condition but has recently been cosmetically restored. It is located at Steam Town.
Thank you for your information on the beast! I'm always learning new things about locomotives
about that last bit about the big boy, is that the 4014 or is that a different one?
@@Randomator5000 4012 is at Steamtown, in Scranton PA.
It's a locomotive, not a "train"! Most of the SP's locomotives used oil, as coal was harder to get in the west.
I have always called them trains. I know it drives people crazy, but it is what it is. At this point, I'll try to correct myself, but it may not work at this point in my life.
Thanks for watching
@@Bayareaandbeyond777 The locomotive pulls the train like a tractor pulls a trailer.
Thank you for showing the Cab-Foward Behemoth Locomotive. I am a big steam fan and didn't realize that a Cab-Foward still existed.
Thanks for your comment. I'm glad you enjoyed my video.
I'm 70 and have a bad memory, thank you for not judging me .
I don't understand your comment?
Because of my original comment that I deleted because I was very rude to you.
@@kittty2005 Thank you for not being rude. We need more people like you in the world. I just film what I see and say what I think.
Beautiful video
It had to run on oil, not coal. The oil was piped from the tender to the "front" (where the firebox was). That would not have worked for coal.
Thanks for your knowledge.
@@Bayareaandbeyond777 And thank you for your enjoyable video.
Thank you! I had doubt about the firebox in this engine when I drove it in Train simulator.
Likely not the oil that you are imagining. In these days, locomotive and many ship boiler fuels burned "bunker-C." Bunker-C was the final product left from crude oil after the lighter distillates were boiled off-- lube oil, gasoline, naptha, etc. Bunker oil is the heaviest remnants, full of heavy metals and many horrible pollutants, and often thick as tar. Much of it came from Kern County, which is known for heavy oils and tar sands. We used to joke that it was basically the dinosaur bones left after the oil had been boiled off. It's so thick that locos (and ships) had pre-heaters that would heat to soften the fuel to allow it to travel through heated pipes from the fuel tender to the firebox and they needed frequent cleaning because of the waste products that were generated. To the best of my knowledge, bunker-C is no longer produced and has no known uses. If I remember correctly, refiners burn this product off at the refinery itself.
the big boy, weights over that, 1.2 million pounds
Wow, that's a heavy one.
It's not a train a train is everything tied together to form a train this is the engine of many trains. It's also called a locomotive.
Thank you for watching.
I've been in this beast when I was little. So happy to find out that since 4449 isn't there (which I really wanted there because its my favorite train), at least a southern pacific is still present within my city. :)
When you were in it, was it live?
@@Bayareaandbeyond777 oh no it was stationary there
I wish though
The biggest steam SP ever ran was the AC-9 2-8-8-4s. They were heavier and could pull more than the cab forwards but it was a pretty close margin lol. And notice, he said, "well, they restored a big boy so..." that wasn't an outward no. There's a small glimmer oh hope.
Those locomotives were common on the Sunset Route between California and Texas
It would take almost 13 fully loaded semi trucks to weigh as much as this loco! That's a lot of iron!
That's crazy 🤪
The Star in the center of the driver's i thank it means it was roller bearing equiped
That's interesting info. I never knew that.
The cab-forwards were locomotives, not trains. They hauled trains. So many people use these words incorrectly.
Thank you for your information. I have loved locomotives for over 50 years now and never knew that. In the future, I will call them what they are.
I guess there’s no place good enough to operate this magnificent IronHorse whatsoever.
No, but we can dream.
@@Bayareaandbeyond777 on that we agree, but I guess nothing comes true.
They apparently were looking into restoring it to operation, but it would probably cost them well over $1 Million, not to mention UP and BNSF's policies regarding operations would make it pretty hard for them to run it over anything but their own track. I'm sure maintaining something like this costs a lot as well.
Awesome
When it comes to what SP 4294 fuel it ran on, oil was the only option the locomotive had besides coal since it was a fire hazard but because you wouldn’t be able to get the coal into the firebox without it being in the traditional rear, instead oil was piped all the way to the firebox.
Thanks for your knowledge.
Great video 👋
Thank you Paul 😇
Where did the locomotive driver learn his trade.
Such sophisticated and complicated engineering 🚠🚂
Was everything made in 🇺🇸
Just love 💕 the trains 🚆
Enjoy your weekend 🍦🍕🍿🍫🍒🍇
It sounds like you like trains too. Thanks for watching and enjoy your weekend also. The engineer would have learned his craft working for the railroad.
no, most items were made in china
The traditional steps towards becoming a locomotive engineer were: loco cleaner to f
WOW!!!
I heard talks of restoring it to operational condition has been talked about from time to time, but it always ended up failing, mostly because of UP and BNSF’s policies and cost
That would be amazing to see this beast run again!
WOW
Una obra maestra
Be an excellent idea to do copy builds of this iconic Ac-12 steam engine for Excursion service they do excellent with hauling frieght as well be a good idea to add something so they can work with diesels thair horn on the cab sounds beautiful so does the steam whistle i Operate this engine on my game on train simulator its my most favorite steam locomotive simply to learn how to operate the engine just study the controls what i do
What train game has this locomotive?
@@Bayareaandbeyond777 its a add on for train simulator on steam a game system on your computer
Do you really think it matters whether you are in front or in the back of a boiler explosion?
That's a fact.
Yes, you are less likely to survive if you are at the firebox end, but you would not have much chance ar either end.
@@user-gd9zy4io8q I'm sure your right!
The rear engine on the cab forward pivots, not the front, since its reversed.
Thanks for your knowledge on this amazing engine.
What's the size compared to the big boy?
Forward cab has similar wheels to the big boy 4014 and the different size’s
I didn't know that. Thanks. I want to see the big boy someday.
Also let’s not nickname the locomotive, that is in this video cover.
Even in this video too to be honest.
Ash? They were oil fired
Спасибо персоналу музея, полностью соблюдается дизайнерская схема покраски, о действующих локомотивах Биг Бой и Челенжер, этого не скажешь.
Boy, I wish I could read that. I can't, so I don't know what you said.
@@Bayareaandbeyond777 Sorry if I didn't express my idea clearly. I meant that Big Boy 4014 has a number of deviations from the original image, due to incorrect painting, and your museum is an example of impeccable style. Steam locomotives and railways mean a lot to me. I also have something to show. I will send if you want. Thanks for the report, Planchet's scheme, it's very original. Michael.
@SteamCoal Now I understand. Your first message, I think, was written in Russian. My email is on my about section if you want to send me something. Thanks for watching. I need to go back to the museum soon.
@@Bayareaandbeyond777 Thank you for taking the time to respond so quickly. I will send material that may be of interest to you, I understand your busyness, I myself am creating a private museum at my own expense. Yes, I am both Russia, and my Russia is in the first decade of the 20th century.
@@Bayareaandbeyond777 I am sending links to my channel so far, you can take a look at your leisure. Regards, Mikhail.
So its just a reversed big boy
What about. Diesels there no. Protection for the front of them
You tell me. I don't know.
he wasn't completely suuffricated!?
Are you talking about the engineer in a tunnel?
Thank you ,I apologize for being an A*****.
this is not a train ,try locomotive !
Train, it is... Not
Thanks for watching
Get your facts straight. Research the subject before you talk about it
No, I'm not a historian. I film what I do and talk about what I know.