tank car for aux warter?

I've seen several pictures of steam engines with a tank car behind the tender and hooked up for use as extra water. What tank cars are available that would be of the right type to use in such a manner? The few I've seen seem to have multiple fittings on the tank turret, something I haven't seen in the photos. Would I have to redo the turret to have a single inlet or should I just find a tank car that was used in a specific type of service and go from there?

TIA

Regards

Reply to
Rashputin
Loading thread data ...

My impression from many photos published over the years is that the majority of RR auxiliary tenders, or "cisterns", or "canteens" were converted from locomotive tenders, and were more often rectangular in shape. Of the roads I follow, the B&O did favor round auxilary water cars. Most were converted from old Vanderbilt tenders, but they did have several that were ex-GATX

12,500 gal. tank cars. The B&O ex-tank car aux tenders did not have much at all done to them from the photos I've seen. But I don't believe it was ever a case of choosing a tank car from the yard and pressing it into aux tender service. The RRs owned very few tank cars, and would have been more likely to buy tank cars being retired by UTLX, GATX, etc., or perhaps to take a water car from MofW service and re-assign it for use as an aux tender. What RR do you model, or if you free-lance, what RR do you lean to for your RR's practices? Geezer
Reply to
Geezer

Well, once upon a time (that is, prior to the arrival of my children), I had a pretty well thought out scheme for a RR based around W&LE with a major "what if" of someone other than NKP getting control of them. I thought it had good connections with other roads and depending on who I settled on as the fictional new owner, it could compete with NKP and be a bridgeline of sorts or cooperate with them and maybe make a few new connections. Since then I've gotten a real taste for MP and Frisco power even though most of what I've acquired over the years is either NYC or USRA with the exception of several MP 2-8-2s. I'm pretty much going to freelance I guess, but will probably base things on the same or some other "what-if" kind of situation from the 40s or early 50s. Thanks.

Regards

Reply to
Rashputin

I only have a couple references on the W&LE, and a few more on the NKP. I don't believe I've ever seen a picture of an auxiliary water tender on either RR's locos. I don't have any ref's on the MoPac. The couple Frisco sources I have do show they used aux tenders - one photo shows a tank car type behind a USRA light mike, and another shows a smallish square one (obviously converted from a smaller scrapped loco's tender) behind a 4-8-2. Some RRs used them, some (like PRR with it's "coast-to-coast" tenders) found other solutions, and some seem to have never used them. Of those that used them, some seemed to like them to avoid delays on main line through freights, while others seemed to like them on smaller branch line runs, sometimes apparently to allow removing seldom used tanks and sometimes to avoid using bad local water (as on the SP narrow gauge). Geezer

Reply to
Geezer

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.