Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

's AC-8 class of

cab forward The term cab forward refers to various rail and road vehicle designs that place the driver's compartment substantially farther towards the front than is common practice. Rail locomotives In steam locomotive design, a cab forward design will ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s was the fifth of SP's

4-8-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 4-8-8-2 is a locomotive with four leading wheels, two sets of eight driving wheels, and a two-wheel trailing truck. Other equivalent classifications are: UIC classification ...

classes. They were built by

Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades t ...

in 1939. The AC-8s were the first to receive the larger redesigned cab windows as standard equipment that were retrofitted onto earlier AC class locomotives. The locomotives were only slightly larger than their AC-7 predecessors. On November 19, 1941, No. 4193 caught on fire. It was carrying a freight train passing through Santa Susana Pass near Los Angeles. The train caught on fire because of a failure to shut off the oil feed. It was carrying 96 cars (not including its tender) and a caboose. A knuckle on the front end of the seventy-fifth car was broken when the accident occurred. Read more on the cab forward section. On May 3, 1941, No. 4199 suffered a boiler explosion at Cooper, California. The first AC-8 entered service on August 18, 1939, and the last on November 26, 1939. Number 4173 was first to be retired from active service on September 2, 1954, while 4172 was the last on January 9, 1958. All of these locomotives were scrapped, beginning with 4155 on November 26, 1954, and ending with 4172 on April 24, 1959.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Southern Pacific class AC-08 AC-08 4-8-8-2 locomotives Baldwin locomotives Simple articulated locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1939 Steam locomotives of the United States Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Freight locomotives Cab forward steam locomotives