Six wheel tenders

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Philip Martin
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Six wheel tenders

Post by Philip Martin »

Six wheel tenders were very common in the British Isles and other parts of the world, but not seen at all in North America. The Pennsylvania Railroad tried it, but couldn't keep them on the rails. I suppose the reason is that the PRR's tracks weren't up to the high standards of European railways. I wonder if there are any other reasons.
The six wheel tender illustrated was in the North British Railway's Tay Bridge disaster December 28, 1879, and is shown after having been raised from the bottom of the Tay.
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John Ashworth
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Re: Six wheel tenders

Post by John Ashworth »

I'm no expert on this and I hope others will weigh in, but it seems to me that part of the reason might be that British tenders were generally relatively small compared to tenders in other countries, perhaps due to the relatively short distances which British trains covered and the ease of replenishing fuel and especially water. South African tenders, although narrow gauge, are huge compared to British ones - look at the Class 25 (both condensers and NC), for example, or the tenders on branch line locos such as the 19D.
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Philip Martin
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Re: Six wheel tenders

Post by Philip Martin »

That's a good thought. Than you, John.
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Steve Appleton
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Re: Six wheel tenders

Post by Steve Appleton »

A number of early South African tenders were 6-wheeled (up to about class 6 locos I think), probably following British practice at the time. My guess is that it would be difficult to get ever-longer, rigid, non-bogie tenders to run well and safely on rough track and over our narrow-guage's minimum radius curves (especially if the axles are not fitted with compensating beams), hence the change to bogies, which also co-incidently lowers the axle-loading to run on lighter track or alternatively permits greater payloads. In fact many later South African tenders (such as the MX-type on the 19D) are on two x three-axle "Buckeye" bogies with load-compensation.

I recall that the then Rhodesia Railways personnel hated the short, rigid, two-axle freight vans once in common use ("shorts" they used to call them) because of their higher derailment risk. I guess it would have been the same in South Africa, because they are all obsoleted now.
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