the Cab Forward

An advert from 1943.

In Wellington, "The Hill" for railwaymen was a reference to the Rimutaka Range, but in California, it meant Donner Pass, at 7,000 ft (2,144 metres) much higher and more formidable than the barrier the Rimutaka Range presented, particularly when it it formed a part of the original trans-Continental Railroad.  To solve the problem of smoke nuisance inside the tunnels on this route (and elsewhere), Southern Pacific developed the Cab Forward, as the name suggests, steam locomotives with the cab in the front.

A book in our library, Cab Forward by Robert J. Church (published in 1982) provides a comprehensive account in its 312 pages plus fold out diagrams. It is probably out of print now, but a second hand bookstore may have one.

A model of a Cab Forward