every picture I see of the venerable old General has the tender covered in wood. Since steam engines do not run on just fuel, how did they take on water on this specific engine?
RicZ
RicZ,
The General was rebuilt and semi-modernized iwith safety equipment in 1961 for the 100th anniversary of the Andrews Raid by the L&N Louisville Shops. They added an air pump, air brake system and converted it to burn oil. In the cosmetic process they added a rather large pile of logs around the tender to cover the oil bunker. There is a water hatch in the middle of the unprototypical wood pile near the rear of the tender deck. Most photos you will see of the General are of the beautiful rebuilt version.
Originally the tender held wood and was not loaded over the water hatch or completely around the entire tender top. Fuel and water stops were frequent in those days and from what I have read were often done simultaneously. I'm not an expert on ANYTHING and especially pre-1900 steam operations but I have read about this being "normal" practice.
Roger Huber
Deer Creek Locomotive Works
Hi, Ric
The water cistern fill is there in the center of the deck. It appears that in many cases additional wood fuel was stacked on the deck to increase fuel-carrying ability.
I have the old MPC kit showing the water fill:
After The General's 1959 rebuild by the L&N it was converted to oil-firing so the wood was just there for "decoration" probably anchored to the top lip of the tender.
Regards, Ed
And although it is not actually W&A No. 3 in the movie, you can get the basic idea of how the engine tenders were watered by watching the wonderful Buster Keaton silent film The General (you also see clearly how the link and pin couplers and oil headlights worked).
Dave Nelson