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42-490: LaFrance was a relative of Truckson LaFrance, the founder of the similarly named fire apparatus manufacturer American LaFrance . and had worked at the legendary apparatus builder before beginning to build his own trucks and apparatus. Ward LaFrance built tank wreckers for the US military , vans for United Parcel Service , over the road tractors, cement trucks, dump trucks, chassis for buses and trolleys , and armored cars . Perhaps

84-516: A 2-10-0 cab-forward, triple expansion, modern steam locomotive for fast-freight work for the ACE 3000 project. Experimental Prussian T 16 (see in German ) 2'C2' ( 4-6-4 T ) had control cabs at both ends. Oliver Bulleid 's ill-fated Leader is sometimes referred to as a cab-forward locomotive, but since it had a cab at each end like a typical modern diesel or electric locomotive, this designation

126-419: A brand-new facility, including manufacturing and corporate headquarters, with nearly 500,000 square feet (46,000 m ) of total space. On 28 January 2008, American LaFrance filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, blaming problems with implementation of a new IBM enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. On 25 July 2008, the company emerged from bankruptcy with a revised business plan to transfer

168-402: A cab-forward with leaking steam entered the tunnel at Santa Susana Pass , near Los Angeles. The tunnel was on a grade, and as the slow-moving train ascended the tunnel, water on the rails from a leaking cylinder cock caused the wheels to slip and spin. The train slipped backward and a coupler knuckle broke, separating the air line, causing an emergency brake application and stalling the train in

210-537: A lesser extent as "Cab-in-fronts" and "Cab-aheads") placed the cab at the front by the simple expedient of turning the entire locomotive, minus the tender , by 180 degrees. This arrangement was made possible by burning fuel oil instead of coal . The cab forward design was widely used by the Southern Pacific Railroad . The design was able to deal with the peculiar problems of its routes. The 39 long tunnels and nearly 40 miles (64 km) of snow sheds of

252-535: A moving locomotive struck a flat car. Turning the normal locomotive arrangement around also placed the crew well ahead of the exhaust fumes, insulating them from that hazard. One problematic aspect of the design, however, was the routing of the oil lines; because the firebox was located ahead of the driving wheels (instead of behind them, the usual practice), an oil leak could land ahead of the wheels and cause them to slip. A nuisance under most conditions, it resulted in at least one fatal accident. This occurred in 1941 when

294-408: A patent on the locomotive design. No. 21 entered service in 1900, but only lasted a few years. Although it reportedly steamed well, though with a sooty exhaust, the crews found it difficult to operate, and with fears of the possible results of a collision they dubbed it "The Freak". A negligent fireman allowed the water level to drop, damaging the boiler, and it was not repaired. L.D. Porta proposed

336-574: A plant in Toronto , Ontario , Canada, where it sold apparatus under the name LaFrance-Foamite, until 1971. On 17 January 2014, American LaFrance announced the cessation of operations. Ward LaFrance , an unrelated competitor fire-apparatus manufacturer also based in Elmira Heights, New York, was founded by a LaFrance family member. It went bankrupt in July 1979 and was later reopened by a different party, under

378-581: A small run of passenger cars from about 1910 to 1920, totaling around 22 (with several additional " speedsters "). An example of their touring model exists, and because the design was based on a Crane-Simplex chassis, several early ALF fire trucks have been retroactively converted into speedsters. In 1927, ALF acquired the Utica-based O.J. Childs company. The company had created Foamite, a liquid chemical designed to extinguish fires in temperatures ranging from −15 °F to 110 °F. In 1947, ALF introduced

420-587: A tunnel that was rapidly filling with exhaust fumes and steam. The oil dripping on the ties then ignited beneath the cab, killing the crew. No other North American railroad ordered cab-forward locomotives, although some, like Western Pacific , did consider the type. Built to deal with difficult terrain, these locomotives became an easily recognizable symbol of the Southern Pacific. In total 256 such Mallet-type articulated locomotives , in three different wheel arrangements, were placed on SP's roster. One example of

462-537: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . American LaFrance American LaFrance ( ALF ) was an American vehicle manufacturer which focused primarily on the production of fire engines , ladder trucks , and emergency apparatus such as ambulance and rescue vehicles. Originally located in Elmira, New York , the final iteration of the company was located in Summerville, South Carolina . It also operated

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504-480: Is a body style of truck , bus , or van that has a vertical front or "flat face", with the cab sitting above the front axle . This body design allows for a more compact configuration. For example, the Jeep Forward Control model was the first time the payload (or pickup box) had a record-breaking 74 in (1,880 mm) length (with the tailgate up) on an 81 in (2,057 mm) wheelbase as well as

546-564: Is greatly improved when the cab is in this position, and in tunnels it does not fill with fumes from the chimney. However, the crew's prospects in the event of a collision are worse, and if the driver and fireman are in separate places it is difficult for them to communicate, just as in autotrains . In Germany, Borsig in Berlin built a one-off streamlined cab forward DRG Class 05 (serial number 05 003) 4-6-4 in 1937, with further development stopped by World War II. Fueled by pulverized coal and with

588-408: Is long because engineers established a goal of packing the engine and everything else that is located ahead of the passenger compartment into a much smaller space and then the designers developed the car's outer body to offer more interior roominess than competing models in their size class. In road vehicle design, cab forward , also known as cab-over , COE (Cab Over Engine), or forward control ,

630-512: Is not entirely appropriate. The cab forward design allows the passenger volume to be larger than in other similar sized automobiles. The first modern mass-produced U.S. automobile using the cab forward concept was the Pacer , introduced in 1975 by American Motors Corporation (AMC). The company did not call it "cab forward", but the Pacer's layout placed the passenger compartment farther forward than

672-458: The Milan-Venice railway . A single Class 671 cab-forward was rebuilt as a Class 672 with a Franco-Crosti boiler in 1939. Matthias N. Forney was issued a patent in the late 1860s for a new locomotive design. He had set out to improve the factor of adhesion by putting as much of the boiler's weight as possible on the driving wheels , omitting the pilot wheels from beneath the front of

714-463: The Sierra Nevada could funnel dangerous exhaust fumes back into the crew compartment of a conventional locomotive. After a number of crews nearly asphyxiated, they began running conventional locomotives in reverse to keep the fumes behind the crew. This meant that the tender was now leading the train, which introduced new problems. The tender blocked the view ahead and put crewmen on the wrong sides of

756-475: The boiler at the very front of the engine. On a coal-fired locomotive, the fireman's station remains on the footplate behind the firebox so as to be next to the tender . On an oil-fired locomotive , the fireman's station could be (and normally is) in the forward cab. This type of design was widely, though not commonly, used throughout Europe in the first half of the 20th century, often in conjunction with an enclosed body design and/or streamlining . Visibility

798-473: The firebox at the forward end, this loco was built with huge driving wheels, 2,300 mm (91 in) in diameter. The design speed was 175 km/h (109 mph), but its conventional layout sister 05 002 set a new world speed record for steam locomotives on 11 May 1936, after reaching 200.4 km/h (124.5 mph) on the Berlin–Hamburg line hauling a 197 t train, a record it lost two years later to

840-446: The 700-series fire apparatus. The 700-series was a " cab forward " design, placing the driver ahead of the engine and providing an expansive forward view. This would become the industry standard. In 1959, ALF introduced the 900-series cab-forward chassis. Although it was similar to the 700 (and closely related 800-series), the 900 was an all new design with a wider cab. In addition to the 700-800-900-Series trucks, ALF produced models under

882-519: The AMC Pacer and the Lamborghini Portofino , which improved cornering and interior space The passenger cabin was "pushed forward" so that the front wheel well directly abutted the leading edge of the front doors, and the windshield extended forward over the engine, while the rear wheels were shifted towards the back corners of the vehicle. Moving the wheels to the edges allowed designers to enlarge

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924-649: The British LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard . In 1944, the streamlining was removed, but the 05 003 had by then already lost its cab forward layout. After the war, it pulled express trains in West Germany until 1958. It was scrapped in 1960. The state-owned Italian Ferrovie dello Stato had several cab forward locomotives, Class 670 and 671 . These 4-6-0 engines had a three-axle tender, and were nicknamed "mucca" (cow). The engines (construction year 1902, top speed 110 km/h) were used to haul passenger trains on

966-554: The Eagle custom chassis . Many of their Liberty products were built on Freightliner M2 or Sterling Acterra chassis. ALF operated additional manufacturing facilities in Ephrata, Pennsylvania ; Sanford, Florida ; and Hamburg, New York . In 2005 it was the fifth largest manufacturer of emergency vehicles in North America . In December 2005, it was announced that Freightliner had transferred

1008-490: The best known Ward LaFrance product was the P-80 "Ambassador" model of pumper, one of which was donated as product placement by the company to be used as the fictional Los Angeles County Fire Department Engine 51 on the 1970s television program Emergency! . In 1976 the ailing company was purchased by a group of private investors but closed for good in 1979. This article about an automotive industry corporation or company

1050-403: The boiler. Such a design would not have been stable at high speeds on the rather uneven tracks which were common at the time. Instead, he extended the locomotive frame behind the cab, placing a four-wheel truck beneath the water tank and coal bunker. In conventional Whyte notation , this resulted in a 0-4-4 T locomotive, but when run in reverse it was effectively a 4-4-0 T , with

1092-489: The cab for seeing signals. The tenders were not designed to be pushed at the lead of the train, which limited speeds. Southern Pacific commissioned Baldwin Locomotive Works to build a prototype cab-forward locomotive, then ordered more units before the prototype had even arrived. All of the cab-forwards were oil-burning locomotives, which meant there was little trouble involved putting the tender at what would normally be

1134-534: The company announced it would cease operation. Remaining assets of the company, which included parts and partially completed trucks, were auctioned to pay creditors. As of that October it was highly unlikely American LaFrance would be opening its doors ever again. The North Charleston Fire Museum and Educational Center, located in North Charleston, South Carolina , claims to house "the largest collection of professionally restored American LaFrance fire apparatus in

1176-438: The country". The museum has an active collection of 20 ALF vehicles, each in operating condition. Cab forward The term cab forward locomotive refers to various rail and road vehicle designs that place the driver's compartment substantially farther towards the front than is common practice. In steam locomotive design, a cab forward design will typically have the driver's compartment or cab placed forward of

1218-640: The end of the nineteenth century by electrification and the development of subways . Ariel and Puck were 2 ft ( 610 mm ) gauge locomotives built to the Forney cab-forward design for the Billerica and Bedford Railroad in 1877 by Hinkley Locomotive Works of Boston. The best known example of the cab-forward design in the United States, the Southern Pacific Cab-Forward (also known to

1260-509: The firetruck body building portion of the business to the remaining Hamburg, New York (formerly RDMurray Inc.), and Ephrata, Pennsylvania (formerly Ladder Towers Inc.), facilities. The Summerville, South Carolina, plant continued to manufacture fire truck cab and chassis, but focused on vocational vehicles and the Condor vehicle line. In 2009, the company closed Hamburg and Ephrata, attempting to consolidate operations to Summerville. On 17 January 2014,

1302-425: The first time offering a model where a 9-foot (274 cm) box exceeded the wheelbase of a truck. The cab forward truck configuration is currently common among European and Japanese truck manufacturers, because the laws governing overall vehicle lengths are strict and the body style allows longer trailers or a longer cargo area for the same overall length than a standard truck (with an engine compartment ahead of

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1344-504: The front of the locomotive. The oil and water tanks were pressurized so that both would flow normally even on uphill grades. Visibility from the cab was superb, such that one crewman could easily survey both sides of the track. There were concerns about what would happen to the crew in the event of a collision, and at least one fatal accident occurred on the Modoc Line in Herlong, California when

1386-724: The idea of creating a monopoly, in 1900 the International Fire Engine Company was announced. It included the American Fire Engine Company, LaFrance Fire Engine Company and Thos. Manning Jr. and Co. Three support equipment manufacturers were included, three fire extinguisher manufacturers also joined the company. In 1903, the company reorganized into the American LaFrance Fire Engine Company and in 1906 company headquarters were relocated from New York City to Elmira. ALF produced

1428-603: The interior while improving ride and cornering. Numerous models built from 1993 to 2004 on the Chrysler LH platform , the JA and JR platforms ("cloud cars") , and the PL platform (Neon) , were specifically marketed as cab forward cars. Chrysler claimed to be the first to apply these features to a full-size car . Likewise, the Dodge Stratus and Chrysler Cirrus have a hood that is wider than it

1470-753: The name of Ward '79. There is no association. The American LaFrance Fire Engine Company traced its roots to 1832, making it one of the oldest fire apparatus manufacturers in the United States. It was founded in 1873 by Truxton Slocum LaFrance (and partners, including Alexander S. Diven ) as the LaFrance Manufacturing Company, selling hand powered equipment. A successor company, the International Fire Engine Company, built some steam power fire engines between 1903 and 1907. Apparatus built by International included horse drawn steamers, hose wagons, and hook & ladders to chemical engines, water towers and combinations. The American LaFrance Fire Engine Company

1512-553: The names Century, Pioneer, and Eagle. The company suspended operations and closed the Elmira operations in 1985. A much-reduced company re-opened for operations in Bluefield, Virginia , in 1986, operating through 1994. In 1995, Freightliner , a subsidiary of Daimler AG , purchased the remnants of the company, yet again resurrecting LaFrance. Freightliner continued to utilize American LaFrance's original nameplates and designations including

1554-662: The ownership of American LaFrance to the New York–based investment firm Patriarch Partners, LLC. The headquarters and main plant in Ladson, South Carolina, were not included in the transaction. However, Patriarch Partners was allowed to use the plant until early 2007, when DaimlerChrysler began using the plant for assembly of the Dodge Sprinter . Under new ownership ALF relocated within the Charleston, South Carolina , area in summer 2007 to

1596-481: The track stability of that popular wheel arrangement, along with unobstructed visibility for the engineer , and improved dispersal of smoke and steam. Forney's design proved ideal for the small, nimble locomotives for elevated and commuter railroads , and he licensed the patent design to many manufacturers. Large numbers of Forneys served in New York City , Boston , Chicago and elsewhere, but were superseded at

1638-768: The type, Southern Pacific 4294 , is kept at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California . It is a 4-8-8-2 locomotive and is the only one of SP's cab-forwards that has not been scrapped. It was also SP's last new steam locomotive, built in 1944. A decade before SP's first cab forward, the North Pacific Coast Railroad , later part of the SP-owned Northwestern Pacific company, rebuilt an 1875 4-4-0 into an oil-fired cab-forward locomotive. This innovative engine

1680-461: Was built by William (Bill) Thomas, the NPC master mechanic who was nationally known and holder of a number of patents. Thomas used the running gear and frame from NPC locomotive 5, the "Bodega", which had been wrecked in 1897, to build NPC 21. With the addition a new and unusual marine water tube boiler and an all-steel cab, installed in reverse order from standard engines, this unique creation earned Thomas

1722-533: Was formed in 1903. ALF delivered its first motorized fire engine in 1907. According to the Elmira, New York, newspaper the Star-Gazette : The company began to manufacture other firefighting equipment and in 1880 became the LaFrance Fire Engine Company. The 1890s was an era of business consolidation with the growth of trusts. A rival firm was created named the American Fire Engine Company. With

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1764-415: Was typical to that time. Its A-pillars were moved forward and the windshield was placed over part of the engine compartment. The Pacer's "wide track and cab forward design actually lets it handle pretty well" given its body roll like competing contemporary models. Cab forward was used by Chrysler Corporation starting in 1992 to describe styling and engineering features that were similar to those seen on

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