Steam Engines - Tender Connections

[richhotrain]

I had a couple of American Flyer trains as a kid in the 1950's and have been into model railroading (HO scale) for the past 7 years.  Yet, I never even thought about this issue until recently.

What physical connections to the engine, other than the coupler, did the tender have ?

I ask this question because I got to thinking about different size turntables and wondered why a larger steam engine couldn't use a smaller turntable by disconnecting the tender and turning it separately.

Rich

 

[wjstix]

The engine and tender were connected by a rather heavy drawbar, not a coupler. There also had to be piping to connect the water in the tender to the engine, and on later engines, a mechanical stoker to move coal from the tender to the engine (or piping to move oil from the tender to the engine). All of these required basically permanent or "semi-permanent" connections. So you'd generally only see a tender disconnected from an engine when one or both were in the shops for some major work.

[richhotrain]

wjstix

The engine and tender were connected by a rather heavy drawbar, not a coupler. There also had to be piping to connect the water in the tender to the engine, and on later engines, a mechanical stoker to move coal from the tender to the engine (or piping to move oil from the tender to the engine). All of these required basically permanent or "semi-permanent" connections. So you'd generally only see a tender disconnected from an engine when one or both were in the shops for some major work.

Stix,

Thanks for that info.  It answered several questions that I had on my mind about the tender. 

Rich

[THE.RR]

Don't forget the air lines for the engine and train brakes as a bare minimum, plus electrical for marker lights and / or a back up light.  Stokers would need a steam or air line to operate the motor; oil tanks a steam line to heat the oil.  Passenger locos would have the steam heat line for the cars and an air signal line for the conductor's use.  Booster engines under the tender would be another steam line. 

Phil