Surviving The Death Tunnels — The Shocking Engineering Of SP's Cab Forward AC-12

Comments · 146

• RI

  @richardwheeler3409 · 1 month ago

  My grandfather engineered AC12s in the 40s throught the war...I still have his operation and traning  manuals for these beasts

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• FN

  @fnln9 · 1 month ago

  The cab forward was a unique method to deal with a truly dangerous situation for the crews.

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• SU

  @SusieOudit · 5 days ago

  At least there is ONE of these magnificent locomotives left on Earth, and as a life-long railfan I'm very glad for that

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• RD

  @rdsexton57 · 1 month ago

  The AC12's were the last of a series which goes unmentioned, still...

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• GM

  @gmck91204 · 3 months ago (edited)

  I saw one of these suckers on what must have been a railfan outing going east out of Sacramento as a nine-year-old in 1957. I was a huge train fan as a kid, but I’d never seen one before, and I had no idea “what” it was. It was especially strange-, frankly sinister-looking because I first noticed a frontal view of it as it was approaching from the rear as we were driving east along the highway. I “couldn’t believe my eyes”. “What is THAT?” I thought. I finally saw the one at the Sacramento rail museum in 2018, and at least I could appreciate its functionality, especially the much improved forward view of the engineer. That’s a huge cost-benefit conflict for me, of course, since the classic steam engine design, with the engineer on the end, the ultimate “phallic symbol”, is just so much better looking, especially post-1920 designs, and it would seem a terrible thing for steam engines to have been cab-forwards from the get-go.

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• AL

  @alfonsinho74 · 4 weeks ago

  Awesome video.  You should write a book.

• BP

  @BPJJohn · 10 days ago

  Basically SP built a mobile Gas Chamber during WW2 ironically.

• TY

  @TyroneMarcucci · 3 months ago

  When I was a kid, 1949-56, I used to go with my cousin to Sparks.. His cousin lived across the street from the huge round house, We never counted less than 13 Mallets as they called them.

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• BI

  @billdohteabaggins3548 · 1 month ago

  It had to be a serious problem for that much trouble

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• WA

  @WayneCook-e5f · 1 month ago

  When I was young, the cab forward engines were impressive. Being aware of the reason they were designed for the safety of the engine crew (except for crashes), I was an impressed kid.

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• EX

  @ExplainItSimply6 · 1 month ago

  a fascinating look at extreme engineering born out of necessity. Placing the crew cab at the front of a steam locomotive was a radical yet brilliant move to save engineers from  suffocating in hazardous tunnels

• NA

  @Narrowgaugefilms · 1 month ago

  Oil firing was the standard for Southern Pacific steam all the way from their narrow-gauge engines on up to the biggest articulateds. <br>The one exception is where they agreed to operate coal fired engines because they got a contract...servicing a coal mine!

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