A couple of my steamers have safety chains on the tenders down by the trucks
What was their purpose and how come all tenders don't have them ?
51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )
ME&O
The chains are there to keep the trucks on in case of a derailment. No idea why all locos don't have them.
Bob Boudreau
CANADA
Visit my model railroad photography website: http://sites.google.com/site/railphotog/
some early diesels had them too. the alco HH 600 for instance. part of the thinking was to keep the wheels from going sideways in a derailment and tearing up the track even more that usual.
grizlump
Um, actually, the truck chains are there to keep the trucks from spinning around in a derailment. In a small, low speed derailment that would be common when switching, as long as the trucks are still square to the rail it's relatively easy to re-rail them and be on your way (with blocks of wood or a re-railing frog). But if they twist too far, you will damage the brake rigging and possibly rack the truck so far that the springs come out of the sideframes.
If you roll the tender over, the least of your troubles will be making sure that the trucks are still attached.
Paul A. Cutler III*******************Weather Or No Go New Haven*******************
Safety chains were applied to tender and passenger car trucks (and sometimes to locomotive lead trucks) to hold the wheels more or less parallel to the car's longitudinal axis in case of derailment. The practical result was that derailed passenger equipment would remain pretty much parallel to the rail, and take the forces involved along their strongest axis.
Compare that to the result of a freight derailment at speed. The trucks turn sideways or fall off, and the cars end up accordioned across the roadbed or piled up like pick-up-sticks. Anything similar in a passenger derailment would result in appalling casualties.
I believe, but can't prove, that the electrical wiring and blower connections to diesel trucks would also tend to keep them from deviating far from a fore-and-aft line.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)