Hi,

the south Pacific Coast and later Southern Pacific obviously ran their 4-4-0's in reverse on commuter trains in the East Bay. This is why the Accucraft SPC 3 has a backup light. Now my question: How did they couple when running backwards? Did they just use a long bar with a  modified knuckle coupler or was a coupler with a long shank attached to the pilot? Also it looks to me as if the tender was equipped with a pilot. A remember having seen a fuzzy photo of #3 with a such pilot attached to the tender. Are there better pictures which give enough information for a model?

Regards

 

Henner,

 

Bruce MacGregor wrote several books on the SPC and they are a great source of information.  SPC ran commuters from Alameda down to San Leandro and back, running the engine around the cars rather than turning.

 

Here is a picture from one of his books taken looking west across the mud flats with an outbound 4-4-0.  Note the link and pin couplers and pilots on both ends:

 

 

SPC ran link and pin until it was standard-gauged in 1906.  Here is another picture from a MacGregor book, this one of caboose #47 on the last 1906 cleanup train being pushed south through Agnew station, with its link and pin draft gear intact.

 

 

 

I hope this helps.  I'm a great SPC fan, but am now far removed from the Bay Area!

 

 

Best regards,

 

Alan 

Alan,

thanks for the reply. With link and pin couplers there should be no problem. You also confirmed the tender pilot. Now I have to find out how they attached it...

Regards