# wooden cabs



## Guest (Mar 27, 2008)

on a lot of fotos from steamlocos, that are adapted or scratchbuilt, i notice wooden cabs.
that makes me curious.
were they so common? or are they just 'fashion' to be modelled?
were they more common on narrow gauge lines, or on mainlines too?

could anybody enlighten me?

korm
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## trainmaster1989 (Jan 4, 2008)

An interesting question. 
I just looked through some of my books on the subject and i haven't seen any definate wooden cabs. I could be wrong of course. 

I would imagine that if they were comon, they would be more common on small narrow gauge railroads with shoestring budgets. Also, wooden cabs often seem to have more "character" which might explain it if it is a "fashion" among modelers. 

I too would like to know  

Scott


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Wooden cabs were common up through the 1900s on steam locos, both standard and narrow gauge. After that, most locos left the shops with steel cabs. But many older steam locos ran their entire lives with wood cabs, so you'd see them on locos up through the 30s and 40s, some even to the end of steam. It was also common practice for railroads to rebuild damaged cabs with steel. 

Later, 

K


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## DKRickman (Mar 25, 2008)

I checked my "Bible" - John H. White's "A History of the American Locomotive, Its Development: 1830-1880" 

He mentions that wooden cabs were made almost without exception until about 1900, as has already been stated. Baldwin's first metal cab was built in 1880 for the Mexican Central Railroad. 

So wooden cabs were quite common for those of us that model 19th century railroads. They are also rather nice to look at, and easy to build. 

As for being more common on narrow gauge, I would say that a lot of narrow gauge equipment, at least in the US, was built in the 1880s. There was not as much new construction in narrow gauge after the turn of the century, so a lot of older equipment was kept running until the lines were abandoned or upgraded to standard gauge. 

Of course, the Rio Grande was an exception, but it was exceptional in a lot of ways.


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2008)

my thanks for the explanations. 

i think, my Southern & Gulf RR will introduce some wooden cabs in the next time. 

korm 
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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

Korm - up in the USA there is this little company called Banta - http://www.bantamodelworks.com/

They do a series of wooden cab kits for the Bachmann 1/20.3 locos...

Might be something there to whet your appetite for a wood cab?

Best

tac
www.ovgrs.org


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2008)

wet my apetite? - more like wet my whole beard... 
if i weren't occupied, trying to make a housefront after one of Blackburns photos, i would instantly start on a cab. 

thanks for that really inspiring link. 

korm 
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## hcampbell (Jan 2, 2008)

You might think about scratch building a cab. Though laser cut plywood is rather nice, I do like the look of real hardwood.










This is a walnut cab on my rather messy Ruby. 

Harvey C.


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## david bunn (Jan 4, 2008)

Banta cabs nice, make your own out of hardwood,cherry,walnut etc,better by far. 
Good luck 
Bunny


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2008)

well, taking everything in account, it will definitely not be lasercut for me, but lesser cut... 
mainly from inlaying veneer. 

do you have another pic from your lady's backend?


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## DKRickman (Mar 25, 2008)

Posted By kormsen on 03/27/2008 1:20 PM

do you have another pic from your lady's backend?


PLease, this isn't that kind of site!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2008)

are you singing: "Ruby, don't take your love to town" now?


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## hcampbell (Jan 2, 2008)

This the view you're after?








Y'know, I may get the hang of this photo business yet.

Harvey C
SA1838


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2008)

yes, this is exactly, what i wanted. it gives me an 'insight' on the construction of the cab, and stills some of my curiosity about the valves of live steam. 

thank you.


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## james brodie (Mar 28, 2008)

Dear Sir, The choo choo's I worked on had a mixture ie steel cab sides with sliding glass windows and wooden roofs. The tank engines didn't have side windows just an opening cut out but still had wooden roofs.
The modern choo choo's had all steel cabs and even doors!
We were still using pre 1923  engines up to the end of steam infact in 1953 the passenger tank loco I was on was built in the 1890s.
Jim Brodie Ex steam engine cleaner etc and after starting at the bottom worked my way down the ladder.


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2008)

so even combinations of wood and steel are prototypical. 
that lends itself to many adventurous modelling. thank you very much! 

but please do not "Sir" me. when you stopped working on steam engines, i was still so young, that my only accomplishment consisted of being 'housebroken' allready. 

and, by the number of your posts... a heartily wellcome. (even if i am new hereabouts myself) 

korm 
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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By james brodie on 03/28/2008 2:55 PM
Dear Sir, The choo choo's I worked on had a mixture ie steel cab sides with sliding glass windows and wooden roofs. The tank engines didn't have side windows just an opening cut out but still had wooden roofs.
The modern choo choo's had all steel cabs and even doors!
We were still using pre 1923  engines up to the end of steam infact in 1953 the passenger tank loco I was on was built in the 1890s.
Jim Brodie Ex steam engine cleaner etc and after starting at the bottom worked my way down the ladder.


I had to laugh twice about your missive... 

one, there is another thread about what constitutes "modern"... you need to read.
http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/4/postid/19664/view/topic/Default.aspx

two, "after starting at the bottom, worked my down the ladder"... that is a great description of many of our careers!


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## MarkLewis (Jan 2, 2008)

The cabs may have been changed to metal, but the floors in many steam locos where still wood. If you've ever seen the floor of SP 4449 then you know it has a wooden floor with an SP logo burned into it.

Mark


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## james brodie (Mar 28, 2008)

We always had wooden floors , they were in module section so could be lifted out if the fitters needed to deal with anything. Also when I was a fireman (but even when a driver and used to share the shovel**for firing as well as cooking on**) we needed a wooden floor otherwise we could have slipped when turning/twisting/while stoking. In thoses days we wore hob nailed boots for protection against scrambling over coal in the tender and when throwing fires out after a turn of duty. Our choo choos didn't have drop firebars so it was a pricker to break the slag up in the firebox then a long slag shovel to empty the firebox or "half " the box and move the good burning coals to one side,then dig down and throw out the slag..then move the burning coals over to the clean bars and then throw out the slag on the other side of the box. Then spread the fire all over the box, fire round,,fill the boiler and leave for the next set. If it was a tender engine and the pit road was on a curve we sometimes had to throw the hot slag out the cab side window*after first opening the window*! 
Yours Jim Brodie 
We can tell tall stories but cooking food on the shovel was true. I in the early days used to toast my bread and treacle sandwiches to revive them also we used to warm pork pies on the boiler end on top of the injector valves..that is the water putter inner thingy. Jim.


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## Guest (Mar 29, 2008)

wooden floors , they were in module section 

do you remember, how many modules and where they were more or less?


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## james brodie (Mar 28, 2008)

wood in cabs:-usually the rear sandboxes had wooden covers on them infact in our NER style cabs we sat on the top of the sand boxes and there were footsteps of wood one for the driver to stand on to raise him up The floor boards had battens underneath them a to pick out in one or two pieces b to stop them moving about when you were standing on them while firing 
On tank engines the water side tanks that came into the cab usually were planked over so you wern't leaning on ironwork but these wooden covers dissapeared when the steamraisers were short of wood when lighting up the fires!! The other wood was coal boards that fitted into the tender coal shute to stop the coal flowing down and over spilling onto the cab floor. Some other locations of wood on the engine apart from the drivers was the front buffer beam or pilot beam. These had steel plate wood plate then steel plate like a sandwich when the wooden beam was replaced by a single steel beam then the side buffers were packed out with circular wooden disc so the buffers were still the original length. I will try and send some descriptive photos if that is allowed, but please be patient with me as with poncuters I am a novice Jim Brodie


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## Guest (Mar 29, 2008)

well, thanks a lot for the descriptions! 
and if you need to know something about putting photos... -everybody here is crazy about photos, so everybody will help you as good as possible to bring them up! just ask. 

korm 
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