Cab Curtains for Steam Locomotives

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Even though the engine crew is standing right behind a massive firebox, nothing is colder than the cab of a steam locomotive on a winter day. The only way to stop the cold wind, rain and snow from entering the cab is a good set of cab curtains.

Cab curtains were made of heavy weight canvas and were arranged to shut off the sides of the cab between the engine and tender. Then a separate roll-down curtain totally enclosed the crew compartment of the cab.

The cab curtains are in important and impressive detail to add to the Santa Fe steam locomotive fleet on Santa Fe's Raton Pass Model Railroad. In this video Sam D. Teague shows you his method of making HO scale cab curtains for Santa Fe steam locomotives.

Sam says he wasn't sure how to go about making convincing cab curtains in HO scale, so he consulted his wife Kathy and asked for her help. Kathy is a quilter and paper crafting specialist that is very talented with fabric and paper crafting.

Kathy came up with a way to replicate the side curtains, which is the most difficult part to model convincingly. She showed Sam some tools of her trade that would be very helpful in fabricating the HO cab curtains. Kathy also recommended a fabric that is highly realistic to represent canvas in HO scale.

Follow along as Sam uses his wife's technique and tools to make HO scale canvas cab curtains for the model railroads fleet of brass and plastic steam locomotives.

Kathy's technique could be used for other scales like S, O and G as well.