Southern Pacific 4294

Southern Pacific 4294 is the last of the twenty AC-12 class cab-forward steam locomotives that the Southern Pacific Railroad took from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1944, and it is the only locomotive of its class that survives. It is an articulated 4-8-8-2, which means it carries two sets of driving wheels under one boiler, and its cab sits at the front of the engine ahead of the boiler rather than behind it. That layout kept smoke, heat and soot away from the crew in the long tunnels and snow sheds of the Sierra Nevada, and it was workable because the engine burned fuel oil, which could be piped forward from the tender, instead of coal. The locomotive entered service on 19 March 1944 and was retired on 5 March 1956. The railroad donated it to the city of Sacramento, where it went on display in 1958, and since 1981 it has stood on static display at the California State Railroad Museum. Restoration to working order has been considered but judged too expensive, at an estimated one to one and a half million dollars.