What's your favorite SP cab forward?

Lionel's AC-12 is a fine engine although not Legacy. It's nicely detailed with good sound but needs the smoke unit treatment (it's from 2005 and has the resistor sheathed in something that chars and makes the smoke output substandard).

 

3rd Rail's AM-4 is a beautifully detailed engine - IMHO one of the best they have made although it lacks the look of brute power of the AC-12. Last time I looked they still had one in stock.

 

I don't have any of the MTH cab forwards. Still hoping Lionel produces a Legacy version.

 

AC-6/7.  It has the vandy tender with the later rounded cab.

My favorite Cab-Forwards are the AC-6 class onwards up to the final AC-12 class, with the AC-11/12 being my personal favirites.

 

MTH has made the AC-6, Lionel the AC-12.

 

Reason I like them over earlier classes such as the AM-4 that 3rd Rail put out, apart from them looking more substantial, is because the prototypes had their air compressor exhaust piping routed straight to the atmosphere instead of the more common method of routing them into the smokebox.  The open exhaust design results in the distinctive (as Railroad historian Robert Church described) "whistle-wheeze" sounds that no other steam locomotive made.  You heard that sound, you knew it was a cab forward.

 

Both MTH and Lionel's models depict the air compressor sounds, although MTH's is more accurate as the sounds, just like on the prototype, are always heard whether the locomotive is moving or at idle (exception when shut down, of course).  MTH's PS2 and PS3 models also have the correct 4 chuffs per revolution and has convincing in-and-out of synch chuff sounds.  Lionel's model only has 2 chuffs per revolution the compressor sounds at idle only and is only 2 chuffs per revolution with not a very convincing (in my opinion) in-and-out of sync chuffing sounds.  MTH's whistle is also more accurate than Lionel's model.  The 2-chuffs on the Lionel model can be fixed by adding a reed switch, but you can't fix the compressor sounds though. 

 

The overall sound fidelity is superior on the Lionel, but to me having more accurate sounds is more important than which one sounds louder and fuller.

 

Tom,

 

I could be wrong, but I don't believe the AC-7 ever had the vandy-syle tender.  As I recall,  the AC-6 was the last in the class of cab forwards that came with the vandy tender, and the higher-capacity, square tenders came with the introduction of the AC-7.  This is based on what I remember from photographs in addition to reading from the Cab Forward book put out by the aforementioned Robert Church, in addition to another SP steam book I have.

My Lionel the AC-12

the one that was in the Roy Rogers movie

Favorite steam locomotive, and first attempt.  17/64 scale.

 

None: real steam locomotives have the cab behind the boiler.

4294 in The California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento

The engineers and brakemen that had to run large steam engines through miles and miles of showsheds & tunnels over Donner Pass might disagree with you on that.  They might think you'd need a reality check. 

A SP AC-6 moved a manifest freight through Cooters Corners on the Independent Hirailers Midwest Division modular railroad.

 

 

Regards,

GNNPNUT

Of any 0 gauge models that are readily available, my favorite is the MTH AC-6 with the modernized cab. MTH made two versions, one with the original, flat-front wooden cab and the other with the smooth, v-front steel cab similar to the later models. I like the looks of the Vanderbilt tender and I'm partial to DCS over TMCC - plus, as John K points out, the MTH engine has a more authentic sound file. Mine runs extremely well and smokes up a storm.

 

Several years back Sunset/3rd Rail did the AC-4, AC-5, and AC-6 locomotives in brass. These were made before even Proto-1; they had early QSI OEM electronics and sound. A very few AC-4's were made in the as-delivered color scheme with gray boiler and boxcar red cab roof. I have one of these and it is beautiful. Unfortunately, the 3rd Rail Cab Forward is notoriously delicate, considered by some collectors to be the most fragile engine 3rd Rail ever built. My experience supports this view, so between fragility and crummy electronics it mostly sits on the shelf. 

 

 

 

My MTH cab forward that I just received this week back from Frank Timko who did the PS2 upgrade. Dave at Mercer Junction kindly let me test run the engine on his store layout.

 

 

 

 

I have both the MTH AC 6 with flat front and Lionel AC 12,I think the detail on the MTH AC 6 with Vanderbilt Tender has better detail and I like the original flat front cab.I beleive that Lee Willis should ride through the sheds at Donner as I have done and envision being able to breathe in the tunnels.

Lee has every right to not like the cab forwards.  I don't like the early bathtub streamline steam.  Others love them.

 

Cab Forwards are my personal favorite- I saw them in action in 1949 and 50, rode behind one from Lordsburg to El Paso, and have a collection of almost every major type.

 

I have three MM-2 with a fourth standing in bare brass, one MC-6, an AC-4, a genuine Lobaugh AC-6 streamline face, and another Lobaugh AC-8 in almost original 1941 configuration, and two giant ACs that I keep in display boxes in the living room.

 

If you would like to see them, they are here:

 

http://s667.photobucket.com/us...ds?sort=3&page=1

 

Thanks. Anyone have the product number of the MTH modern AC-6 with Vandy handy?  Is it 20-3125-1?

 

Thanks for all the pictures and links. Really cool looking locomotive. 

I'm with Mr. Knorling.....Gimme a 3800 cab-backward every time,   especially a late model with a 25C tank!

The 3800s were originally 4200s.  They were called, by railroad folk, "Backup Malleys." Of course, most were simple articulated in the end, but still called malley, after Anatole Mallet's invention.

 

The newest release MTH AC 6 Cab Forward 20-3347,the sound,bell,whistle are pretty close and lots of authentic cab chatter dialog

I had planned on getting the 3rd Rail AM-2 but money got tight at the time. I do like my Lionel AC-12, different to have that cab up front. Had it upgraded with EOB cruise and smoke years back when TAS was still open, before I read of the other possible smoke unit fixes. Now it smokes a lot, but is on/off. But, as I decided to focus on the Frisco, Mkt & Santa fe native to my area I decided to try and sell it. Never did get any real interest in it, which kind of surprised me. With its weight and looks seems like it could pull lot of freight!

Thanks - I will try to find one..... But no palm trees!!!!

I have 2 Williams Cab Forwards with added detail-sand piping from the domes, piping under the cab, tender grab irons, cab roof gutters, large C-shaped pipe, lubricators,some more piping under the running boards and more stantions on the piping under the running boards. 2 Sunset Cab Forwards (AC-5, and 7-2 rail), Lionel AC-12 and MTH AC-6. I have a Lionel AC-9 and a Sunset AC-9 (2-rail) on order.  What got me interested in Cab Forwards (and giant steam in general) was seeing the AHM HO version in Madison Hardware in the summer of 1966.  Although it was plastic it had the look of massive power.  I painted one of my Williams all black and grimy blacked the drivers, renumbered it 4272 and put the old style lettering on the tender in honor of this model. Although I have Big Boys, Yellowstones, Y6b, 2-10-10-2. G.N. 2-8-8-2, Jawn Henry, VA 2-6-6-6, S.P. 2-8-8-4s, the ACs are my favorites, particularly the later bow-fronts (AC-7 to 12s). I saw the Latest Key AC-12, something I will NEVER have!

I have the MTH 20-3347-1 with the modernized cab. MTH made two versions, one with the original, flat-front wooden cab and the other with the smooth, v-front steel cab similar to the later models. I am not parting with it. I agree with all the previous comments on it above.

The cabs on all the cab-forwards were made of steel; none of them were made of wood.

They are all weirdly attractive; the early whale-back-tendered types are just so

delightfully ugly that I would love to have one. (See bob2's above; wonderful.)

 

I have the MTH AC6 with flat front - I tend to prefer the flat front, but like them 

all (I also like electric box cabs with flat faces; coincidence?); that loco is PS1 and

may have a date with ERR. I like the smooth-sided Vandy tender that it has, also. 

 

My favorite AC, though, has to be the 9. I keep having to explain that the cab is

in the REAR. It's stream-styled, it's Lima and it's my favorite (real) articulated, as I like it

even better than the USRA 2-6-6-2. I have the Lionel coal-burner; if Lionel ever offers

a properly changed/detailed later oil-burning version, I'm in deep trouble.

 

Maybe I missed it above, but I presume that most of us know that "AC" was the class

designator that meant "articulated consolidation", even though they wandered from

the 2-8-0.

 

The AC-9 is typically called the "backward cab-forward."

I've heard "backward cab-forward", which always makes me chuckle.

 

Many less-informed types like to say that "oh, they just turned them around at the factory", totally oblivious to the fact that the two configurations have nothing in common except the number of drivers and the railroad that ordered them. Different builders, different fuels, different dimensions, different wheel arrangements (yes), different assignments, different machines.

Sunset is offering the AC-9 in both oil and coal versions. A friend of mine calls it "a GS-4 on steroids". They ran on coal until around 1950, then they were moved to the Modoc line and converted to oil.  Because of their excessive width, the S.P. had to get a special permit to run them in in California (see Church's Cab Forward book).  I have not been able to find much footage on the AC-9s. Does anybody know where there is some footage of them other than the Cab Forward DVD?

They are all weirdly attractive.

 

 That's the reason I bought mine. But then I could say that about a lot of things . . . .and people too.

 

 

My favorite O scale Cab Forward....the only one I have.....first issue MTH RK loco sound unit. I'd like to find a Williams scale loco.....but yet to find one in my range!

The first two were indeed "turned around" after running as conventional Mallet Consolidations.  The rest were designed with the cab in front, but it was not that complicated.  The oil had to be heated and delivered under light pressure.  I am not sure how many changes were made at the controls, but it was all straightforward.