Lately,I’ve found that these existed to start with,then I read that their obvious purpose was to reduce the train stops to replenish water thus speeding up service significantly.I do think that they weren’t justified on short trips and on trains that did have frequent stops on their route anyway,but these must have been most appreciated on long non-stop stretches.However,I have never seen any on any of the pictures of steam trains I’ve seen so that question came to mind…did most railway companies have these and used them widely or if it was a most uncommon feature and many railways prefer to rely on water points along their track system?Also,were these more a freight train add on or if they could be seen within passenger trains just the same?Just curious,thanks.
The B&O and N&W are two roads who used them a lot in the mountains. This avoided water stops with heavy trains on steep grades. Additonally, trains working hard on grades use more water tan ones crusing along on the flat, hence their use in mountains.
Sheldon
the IC was not a mountain railroad but they used them a lot behind their larger steam power. they were something of a pain when the locomotive had to be turned on a turntable but the benefits must have been great enough to make it worthwhile. since the auxiliary tenders were bi-directional that was not as big a deal as the workers made it out to be.
many of these were converted to company sand service later on.
in later years, they became common behind excursion engines since the regular water plugs were long gone and it takes quite a while to fill a tender from a fire plug.
grizlump
They were common but not universal. Only selected runs used them.
The GN had some. For example, on page 289 of Charles & Dorothy Wood’s “The Great Northern Railway” there’s a photo of same. The caption reads:
“Above: In 1938, class O-1 Mikado No. 3077 waits at Lookout, California, just north of Bieber. Water is scarce in this high lava bed country, not far from Mt. Lassen, and the 2-8-2 trails an auxiliary water car, as did most other GN power along the California extension.”
I’m not sure I’ll buy that last phrase, but I have seen other pictures from that section of the GN with steam engines with aux. tenders.
There have been imported in brass models of one or two of these tenders. The one I have is basically a square box sort of thing. I think the prototype was converted from a “real” tender. In the photo sited, the aux. tender is a converted tank car. Lest one assume that the loco is just hauling a company service water car to a new location, there is showing in the photo the water pipe connection between the two tenders. I don’t know whether auxiliary tenders were used elsewhere on the GN. I expect I’ll bring that up on the Yahoo group.
Ed
PS: A little more digging found a picture of a loco with an aux. tender in Cloquet, Minnesota, so I guess I can skip the Yahoo question.
PPS: I don’t think the GN ever used aux. tenders for passenger, just freight. In the example just sited, the loco is in work service; and I think they tacked the water bottle on the back (a “square” one in this case) so that the train could stay on station longer. An aux. tender added a significant bit of weight to a train, so one would not always be advantageous.
Bachmann used to make a model of the N&W version-they may still do for all I know.
I bought a couple to run behind my Rivarossi Y6b’s some time ago,they look good!
Steve
It wasn’t unusual in areas where water sources were not sufficiently reliable and handily located as in some desert areas that auxiliary tenders were a necessity rather than just a convenience.
Mark
Auxiliary water tanks aren’t a late-steam idea, nor were they confined to the American continent.
In one of my Japanese-language railfan magazines is a photo of a Baldwin-built 0-8-0T with a four wheel canteen coupled to the cab end. The caption explained that the side tanks were a bit too small to carry the water necessary for the out-and-back branchline run to which that loco was assigned, and adding the canteen eliminated the need for a water facility at the end of the branch.
That photo was dated 1897…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
“Canteen,” now that’s an interesting translation.
But still doesn’t compare to The Grapes of Wrath translated to “The Angry Grapes.”
Mark
They were used on a number of prairie branchlines up here in Canada, mostly behind 4-6-0s. Water quality was an issue in some areas, and it was probably more economical on a lightly used branch than providing extra lineside tanks “just-in-case”. Several designs were used. Sometimes they were a tank car, other times a rectangular tank on a flat car, or a tender from a scrapped sister.
John
Different railroads called them by different names. The IC called their auxiliary tenders “cisterns”.
I know I’ve read of othe American railroads calling their’s canteens but I can’t recall which ones.
Jeff
Ya at least one railroad called them “canteens”. It seems like auxilliary tenders or whatever you want to call them became much more common after WW2 as steam engines (and attendant facilities for them) were fading away. I’ve seen pics of DMIR and NP ore trains with them, but never before the war.
Indeed some of the Great Northern Aux.water cars were old tenders cut down for this servce,I did luck out and was able to pick up a copy of the only brass GN. car imported seen here trailing my PFM class F8 2-8-0.
It seems that crews were the first to realize the importance of sufficient tender size and fuel and water requirements. I have read several accounts of prudent management reusing tenders from smaller class locos behind engines that could have used massive tenders causing the crews to stop more frequently then they would have liked. The opposite side of that arguement is the PRR tried a truly massive tender behind some K4s engines in passenger service that were longer than the engine and reduced the train by one car so there is a trade off. It was also fairly difficult to spot a loaded train accurately often requiring the crew to disconnect and run light to the plug for rewatering. Not all railroads used water cars but I would be willing to take a guess that nearly all experimented with the idea in some form or another. The PRR used tank cars for the job where needed and several pictures exist with a massive connecting pipe to the tender like 10-12" diameter.