Hello and Seasons Greetings fellow model railroad enthusiast! Can anyone answer this question? On the rear of Santa Fe's steam locomotive tenders are stenciled data markings like 10000 G. W. for Gross Weight. What is meant by the abbreviation 3129 G. O. S. 543? Many thanks and everyone be safe out there.
I believe "10,000 GW" is "gallons of water". The other number may well refer to gallons of oil.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Isn't 3129 the class number (here, a 2-8-2)? EDIT - a number of ATSF tenders were converted from coal to oil and the 'new' capacity is the number of gallons corresponding, net of tank construction, to that weight. The Madam Queen 5000 had 27 tons and after conversion shows 7107 gallons. So having a 'weird' number of gallons may be likely here.
Just a hunch,
The 3129 is gallons of oil then a hyphen S 543 meaning steam cleaned in May of 1943? Their coal tenders do not have the S-xxx stencil, just the weight capacity of coal.
Bunker C fuel gets tar deposits and gunk built up. Maybe Santa Fe stencils the clean out date.
Just a wild guess.
Cheers, Ed
That makes sense, Ed! Thanks for the insite.
Appreciate the conversion from coal to oil on SF locomotives. That seems logical.