Southern Pacific Company's MC-6 class of

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 is made up of two batches: the first consisting of 15 locomotives weighing built in 1912, the second consisting of 5 locomotives weighing built in 1913. All of the locomotives 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 ...

. This was the last class of

2-8-8-2 A 2-8-8-2, in the Whyte notation for describing steam locomotive wheel arrangements, is an articulated locomotive with a two-wheel leading truck, two sets of eight driving wheels, and a two-wheel trailing truck. The equivalent UIC classification ...

locomotives that Southern Pacific (SP) ordered as

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 ...

locomotives. Locomotive number 4043, the newest of the early class of MC-6 locomotives, was displayed at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition along with SP's first locomotive, ''

C. P. Huntington ''C. P. Huntington'' is a 4-2-4T steam locomotive on static display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California, USA. It is the first locomotive purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad, carrying that railroad's number ...

''. All but three of the locomotives in this class were rebuilt as the AC-3 class with "simpled" uniform cylinders of by 1930. The last three were thus rebuilt in 1937. During the rebuild, 4¼-BL Worthington feedwater heaters were also installed on the fireman's side of the locomotives. After their rebuilds, the locomotives were used through the end of World War II with the last one scrapped on August 20, 1949.

References

* {{SP cab forward locomotives MC-6 2-8-8-2 locomotives Baldwin locomotives Mallet locomotives Steam locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1912 Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States