Vanderbilt tenders?
Jon Sawyer
I didn't get any response in rec.models.railroad, so I'll try again
here. Also, what tenders were used with the Challenger locomotives?
Did this vary significantly between railroads?
In rec.models.railroad, j...@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (Jon Sawyer) writes:
What's a Vanderbilt tender? What's a semi-Vanderbilt tender? And
under what conditions/circumstances were these tenders used: long
haul, short haul, mountainous, plains, freight, passenger, etc.?
Wes Barris
UP Challengers used (at least) a couple types of tenders. Earlier models
had Vanderbilt tenders. Later models had Centipede tenders. A number of
pictures of other Challengers (with tenders) can be seen in Model Railroaders
Steam Locomotive Encyclopedia.
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Minnesota Supercomputer Center, Inc. Email: w...@msc.edu
Rod Miller
>
> What's a Vanderbilt tender? What's a semi-Vanderbilt tender? And
> under what conditions/circumstances were these tenders used: long
> haul, short haul, mountainous, plains, freight, passenger, etc.?
Here's my understanding of what the vanderbilt tender is.
The main difference between a vanderbilt tender and more common
tenders is that the vanderbilt tender's water tank is cylindrical.
The fuel bunker on pure vanderbilt tenders sits on top on one end of
the tank:
----------
| fuel |--------------
| / \
<------[locomotive]----> | / water |
|------- |
| /
|------------------------
() () () ()
On a semi-vanderbilt tender, the fuel bunker is of the same width as the
diameter of the tank, and the back edge of the fuel bunker blends into
the tank at the tank's vertical center. Another way to think of it is
that the tank is not a separate structure as on the full vanderbilt.
The semi-vanderbilt tenders were typically of greater capacity than the
full vanderbilts.
Railroads that used them include: Erie, Great Northern, Union Pacific,
Southern Pacific, and no doubt others.
Rod Miller
Michelle Donat SE Chicago Loop
Vanderbuilt tenders were rounded in back, with lotsa trucks, usually a
three or four axle trucks and a two axle truck in back. They were usuall
for oil -the semi-vanderbuilt tenders were straight sides with rounded
bottoms (I seem to remember). Vanderbuilt type tenders were usually
used for long range stuff -and usually on the biggest engines in the
fleet. They were used by both East and West coast railroads.
John Donat
--
Michelle Donat
SE Chicago Loop
mich...@sunloop.Central
R. Todd Minsk
r...@tassajara.Eng.Sun.COM (Rod Miller) writes:
> Railroads that used them include: Erie, Great Northern, Union Pacific,
> Southern Pacific, and no doubt others.
Grand Trunk Western was also fond of them.
Todd Minsk, ferro-bibliographer
Rod Miller
>
>Vanderbuilt tenders were rounded in back, with lotsa trucks, usually a
>three or four axle trucks and a two axle truck in back. They were usuall
>for oil -the semi-vanderbuilt tenders were straight sides with rounded
>bottoms (I seem to remember). Vanderbuilt type tenders were usually
>used for long range stuff -and usually on the biggest engines in the
>fleet. They were used by both East and West coast railroads.
>
very large, and had a two axle truck right behind the engine, followed
by a structure (not a truck since it didn't swivel) that had another
five axles. UP challenger 3985 and all the UP big boys had this type
of tender. NYC also used them under certain hudsons, and on niagras.
The UP locos in their original service (pre-excursion era) and the NYC
locos carried coal in their centipede tenders. By my definition of a
vanderbilt tender - the water tank structure is a cylinder - the
centipede tender wouldn't be considered a vanderbilt tender.
SP and had lots of four axle (two trucks) vanderbilt tenders, some of
which were quite small compared to the centipede tenders. The SP used
vandy tenders on locos as small as 4-4-0s.
For a good overview of vanderbilt tender types, look through Dunscomb's
book on SP steam locomotives.
Rod
Kershner Wyatt
>You may be thinking of what I know as a centipede tender. These were
>very large, and had a two axle truck right behind the engine, followed
>by a structure (not a truck since it didn't swivel) that had another
>five axles. UP challenger 3985 and all the UP big boys had this type
The "centipede" tender issue brings me to something I hadn't thought about
before -- are some of the the wheels on the multiple axles flangeless? Seems
to me that there would be a little turning problem otherwise, but I confess
I never have looked at that when seeing one of these style tenders.
Kershner
--
Kershner Wyatt
kwy...@ccscola.ColumbiaSC.ncr.com
My opinions are my own and aren't necessarily my employer's.
Roger Mitchell
lateral motion on the axles to allow them to negotiate curves.
Roger Mitchell
Master Mechanic & President
Fort Collins Municipal Railway
rog...@fc.hp.com
Ham radio N0MCR
Jussi Tepponen
>look that close at the tender when it was here. But, 3985 DID indeed have
>some problems turning. In one case, (when it was in Chinchfield mode,
>I think) they were unable to get it around one leg of a wye, and ended
>up being towed, backwards, by a diesel to another turning location. How
----------------------
>humiliating!
Why did not they simply reverse the loco? I thought all the stems could
operate bidirectionaly...(That should not be too difficult technically)
*************************************
Jussi Tepponen
tepp...@lut.fi