Treasures of the Henry Ford: The Allegheny Cab Here's a look at the "business office" of the big C&O 2-6-6-6 Allegheny Locomotive, which is housed in The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. Accessed by a large staircase positioned beside the locomotive, the cab of this enormous machine is needless to say, popular with kids. Getting a few moments alone in here to take a clean photograph is a challenge, particularly on a weekend, or during a school vacation. The layout of the Allegheny Cab is pretty conventional, with the Fireman seated on the left, running the stoker and injectors, and the Engineer seated on the right, handling the throttle, reverser, brakes and whistle. Although the firedoors are open so visitors can peer into the enormous firebox, those doors would have been used sparingly during normal operations, mainly to check the fire and perhaps cover the corners with an occasional shovel of coal. The vast majority of this beast's diet would be handled by the steam-driven stoker engine, which would distribute a ground-up slurry of coal over the grates, aided by jets of steam. The large steel-plate housing at the very bottom of the photo is not part of the cab's furnishings. Rather, it was installed by the museum to keep patrons from getting too close to the backhead....and likely to keep the kiddos from crawling into the firebox.
