After scavanging for photos of the beast, and looking at the different tenders that the N&W stuck behind this class, I was left stumped with a question that I cant answer. I have found a picture of 553, and in 1946 she had a square tender (squared edges) and what appears to be a full coal buunker. In a photo of her in 1949, the tender edges are rounded and the coal bunker appears to be cut in half.
What was the reason for this transformation? It appears to be the same tender. What was the benefit? It appears half ready to be converted into another auxillary tender (one of many that the N&W had). Any help to shed some light on this would be appreciated. Thanks.
Rocky,It would help if you could post some pictures to make it clear which tenders you are speaking of. Without those to view, I would suspect that the later tender had a higher capacity of coal and water. The N&W swapped tenders around like this a lot. When a locomotive was retired from service, its tender would still live on to fuel another loco.
What I can only guess that you have seen judging from your description is a tender from an M2 replaced the earlier tender on the E2a.
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