Burlington 52' 16 wheel tender

[teedoff8659]

Bachmann made this with the 4-8-4 Northerns....does anyone know what type fuel this locos used? It doesn't appear to be a coal tender.

[Len]

If the tender is completely enclosed, like the coal bunker has been plated over, then it used fuel oil for the fire.

Len

[Trainman203]

I am pretty  certain that the prototype of this tender is an ATSF tender for oil burning 4-8-4's, and the prototype for the engine you have is most likely a Santa Fe engine, not a CB&Q engine.

The oil used was only a small notch above tar, called "bunker C"' that had to be heated to move to the firebox at all.  There were steam pipes from the engine to do this.  I learned about them the hard way 50 years ago when I climbed into the cab of an oil burner and grabbed bare handed what I thought was a handrail on the tender.  There's a reason why railroaders always wore heavy gloves and still do.

[RAM]

What kind of locomotive was that.   I thought all the heating lines below the deck.

[Trainman203]

It was a very light 2-8-2 from the Santa Maria Valley in CA.  I seem to recall it being no. 101, maybe it was 100.

It had a Vanderbilt tender at the time but that might not have been original, could have been an ex-SP tender.  No matter, that pipe was hot to the max with live steam in it.  It took  weeks for the blisters to go away.

I also learned to wear appropriate clothes in a steam engine cab.  White Levi's were popular at the time.  That particular pair went in the trash at the end of the the day.