(Redirected from Tender locomotive)
For other uses, see Tender.
Sierra Railway #3 Tender
A British SECR O1 class runs tender-first at the Bluebell Railway.
Cutaway cross section showing a Spanish tender designed for fuel oil.
Green areas holds water and brown areas hold fuel oil. There is a
special arrangement to prevent sloshing around during the movement of
the train.
A tender or coal-car is a special rail vehicle hauled by a steam
locomotive containing the locomotive's fuel (wood, coal, or oil) and
water. Steam locomotives consume large quantities of water compared to
the quantity of fuel, so tenders are necessary to keep the locomotive
running over long distances. A locomotive that pulls a tender is called
a tender locomotive. Locomotives that do not have tenders and carry all
their fuel and water on board the locomotive itself are called tank
engines.
A brake tender is a heavy variant used primarily to provide greater braking efficiency.
Contents
1 General functions
1.1 Water supply
1.1.1 With track pans or water troughs
1.2 Fuel supply
2 Tender design variants
2.1 Vanderbilt tender
2.2 Whaleback tender
2.3 Slopeback tender
2.4 Canteen
2.5 Fuel tender
2.6 Brake tender
2.7 Powered tender
2.8 German practice
3 Tender-first operations
4 References
5 External links
//
General functions
The largest steam locomotives are semi-permanently coupled by a drawbar
to a tender that carries the water and fuel. The fuel source used
depends on what is economically available locally to the railway. In
the UK and parts of Europe, a plentiful supply of coal made this the
obvious choice from the earliest days of the steam engine. Up to around
1850 in the United States, the vast majority of locomotives burned wood
until most of the eastern forests were cleared; from that time on coal
burning became more widespread, and wood burners were restricted to
rural and logging districts.
Water supply
Shay locomotive Dixiana at the Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railroad,
Felton, California, with wooden water tower and extendable spigot
visible in the background.
According to Steamlocomotive.com,
By the mid-1800s most steam locomotive tenders consisted of a fuel
bunker (that held coal or wood) surrounded by a "U" shaped (when viewed
from the top) water jacket. The overall shape of the tender was usually
rectangular. The bunker which held the coal was sloped downwards toward
the locomotive providing easier access to the coal. The ratio of water
to fuel capacities of tenders was normally based on two water-stops to
each fuel stop because water was more readily available than fuel. One
pound of coal could turn six pounds of water (0.7 gallons) to steam.
Therefore, tender capacity ratios were normally close to 14 tons of
coal per 10,000 gallons of water.
The water supply in a tender was replenished at stopping places and
locomotive depots from a dedicated water tower connected to water
cranes or gantries. Refilling the tender is the job of the fireman, who
is responsible for maintaining the locomotive's fire, steam pressure,
and supply of fuel and water.
Water carried in the tender must be forced into the boiler, to replace
that which is exhausted after delivering a working stroke to the
pistons. Early engines used pumps driven by the motion of the pistons.
Later steam injectors replaced the pump, while some engines used
turbopumps.
With track pans or water troughs
Main article: Track pan
In the UK, the USA and France, water troughs (US track pans) were
provided on some main lines to allow locomotives to replenish their
water supply without stopping. This was achieved by using a 'water
scoop' fitted under the tender or the rear water tank in the case of a
large tank engine; the fireman remotely lowered the scoop into the
trough, the speed of the engine forced the water up into the tank, and
the scoop was raised again once it was full.
The fuel and water capacities of a tender are usually proportional to
the rate at which they are consumed, though there were exceptions. The
Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad used track pans
on many of their routes, allowing locomotives to pick up water at
speed. The result was that the water tanks on these tenders were
proportionally much smaller.
A Southern Railway (Great Britain) locomotive with a "water cart" tender
In the UK track pans were called water troughs and were used by three
of the Big Four railways. The exception was the Southern Railway and
some Southern Railway locomotives were equipped with eight-wheel "Water
Cart" tenders.
Fuel supply
A factor that limits locomotive performance is the rate at which fuel
is fed into the fire. Much of the fireman's time is spent throwing wood
or shoveling coal into the firebox of the locomotive, in order to
maintain a constant steam pressure. However, in the early 20th century
some locomotives became so large that the fireman could not shovel coal
fast enough. Consequently, in the United States, various steam-powered
mechanical stokers (typically using a screw-feed device between the
fuel bunker and the firebox) became standard equipment and were adopted
elsewhere, including Australia and South Africa.
Tender design variants
In the early days of railroading, tenders were rectangular boxes, with
a bunker for coal or wood surrounded by a U-shaped water jacket. This
form was retained up to the end of steam on many coal-burning engines;
oil-burning engines substituted a fuel tank for the bunker. Variations
on this plan were made for operational reasons, for in attempts to
economize on the structure.
Vanderbilt tender
In 1901, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, whose great-grandfather founded the
New York Central Railroad, invented a cylindrical tender which was soon
adopted by a number of American railroads with oil-burning locomotives.
Compared to rectangular tenders, cylindrical Vanderbilt tenders were
stronger, lighter, and held more fuel in relation to surface area.
Railroads in the U.S. and Canada who were noted for using Vanderbilt
tenders include:
Baltimore & Ohio
Canadian National
Grand Trunk Western
Great Northern
Southern Pacific
Union Pacific
Whaleback tender
A form peculiar to oil-burning engines was the "whaleback" tender (also
sometimes called a "turtle-back" or "loaf" tender). This was a roughly
half-cylindrical form with the rounded side up; the forward portion of
the tank held the oil, while the remainder held the water. This form
was particularly associated with the Southern Pacific.
Slopeback tender
In the United States, tenders with a sloped back were often used for
locomotives in yard switching service, because the sloped back greatly
improved the engineer's ability to see behind the locomotive when
switching cars. The reduced water capacity was not a problem, as the
tender's water tank could be frequently refilled from the water tower
or water crane in a rail yard.
Canteen
An additional tender which holds only water is called a "canteen."
During the steam era, these were not frequently used. Water tanks were
placed at regular intervals along the track, making a canteen
unnecessary in most cases. However, there were times that canteens
proved economical. The Norfolk & Western used canteens with its
giant 2-8-8-2 locomotives on coal trains. Use of the canteen allowed
one of the water stops to be skipped, meaning that the train did not
have to climb a hill from a dead stop. Currently, Union Pacific uses
canteens with its steam locomotives 844 and 3985 on excursion trains.
Virtually all the trackside tanks were removed when steam locomotives
were...(and so on)
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