I was watching a rerun of Pawn Stars and somebody brought in a vintage piece of tinplate to sell. I was amused to hear Rick Harrison refer to the tender as "the coal car". I hadn't heard that term in many years. I remember when I first started playing with toy trains when I was very young, that's what we called the tender. It was only when I got serious about model railroading that I learned the correct term was tender.
I'm sure a lot of people who aren't railroad buffs don't realize that the tender carries water in addition to fuel. They don't realize that in the early days, wood was the common form of fuel and in the later days of steam, oil was burned instead of coal. Still I enjoyed hearing him refer to the tender as a coal car for nostalgic reasons.
Might have had something to do with the censors.
He could say that the engine had a coal car behind.
But they might not let him say that the engine had a tender behind.
I have also seen it in eBay auctions. Sometimes they will even list them separately. One engine one coal car. Breaks my heart sometimes. I have messaged the seller to inform them that they should be together and the proper names. Some say thank you but most don't care.
Pete.
wrench567 I have also seen it in eBay auctions. Sometimes they will even list them separately. One engine one coal car. Breaks my heart sometimes. I have messaged the seller to inform them that they should be together and the proper names. Some say thank you but most don't care. Pete.
That's probably a buyer beware flag right there. The seller is not a model railroader.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasley wrench567 I have also seen it in eBay auctions. Sometimes they will even list them separately. One engine one coal car. Breaks my heart sometimes. I have messaged the seller to inform them that they should be together and the proper names. Some say thank you but most don't care. Pete. That's probably a buyer beware flag right there. The seller is not a model railroader.
It's not uncommon at all on ebay to find a seller who really doesn't know that much about the item(s) they are selling. That could be an indication it is an estate sale or an attic find. The seller doesn't really know what he has and only does a minimal amount of research on it to find out.
I had forgotten the term. I seem to hear my father's voice, at 14K feet ASL in the Andes of Peru, pointing out a passing Baldwin with it's 'coal car' in 1960.
As a small kid, I remember the coal truck coming by, once in a while, to dump a couple 100lb. bags of coal down the chute in the window well under the bay window of our rental house. According to my father, the landlord was a bit of a tightwad, as we often ran out of coal during the winter.
The house, shown below, is now long gone, but it looks like somebody finally converted to gas heating...
Even at the age of three, I knew that the car behind the locomotive was a tender, as I saw the trains everyday, right across the street, on an elevated RoW.
Wayne
News folks, when reporting on an accident or derailment, usually refer to "tanker cars" and "flatbeds" (or "flatbed cars") rather than tankcars and flatcars...and of course diesel-powered trains "chug" through town while blowing their "whistle".
Well if you are looking for any talking head on the boob tube to be knoweldgeable about anything beside reading a teleprompter you are mistaken. You should live here in the boonies of Northern Michigan and hear all the words they do not pronounce correctly let alone what they mean
Funny you mention this now, because just yesterday I heard my brother refer to a "coal car" instead of a tender. We had trains as kids 40 and 50 years ago, and while I have been back in the hobby now for a year or two (and thinking and reading about it for several more), my brother has not yet found space/time/money to get back in. So when he said the phrase "coal car" yesterday it caught me by surprise, but it was a sweet throwback. Memory whiplash. Back to when we were kids and that's what we called the tender, no matter what was in it.
-Matt
Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.
ndbprr Well if you are looking for any talking head on the boob tube to be knoweldgeable about anything beside reading a teleprompter you are mistaken. You should live here in the boonies of Northern Michigan and hear all the words they do not pronounce correctly let alone what they mean
I remember a news reporter on the scene of a crossing accident say " The trains conductor had no time to steer around the car stuck on the track." Really gives me faith in humanity and the news.
Pete
Before too many missiles are hurled at newsreaders or the rest of the Great Unwashed, we, as those who have an interest of varying degrees in railroading, have some navel gazing to do also. Our automobile oriented culture has led to automotive jargon creeping into all aspects of our daily vernacular. A term that is frequently used, even on this forum is "parked", in reference to rail equipment left standing in place somewhere. None of the legions of prototype railroaders I have had the pleasure of crossing paths with ever referred to standing equipment as parked! It was always spotted, set out, dropped, tied up, tied down, or something to that effect. Parked was always reserved for highway vehicles or, airplanes, not rail equipment.
After all, we don't refer to a yard as a parking lot, diesel fuel as gas, a shop or engine house as as "garage", a multi-track mainline as a two, three, four or more main as a "fill in the number", LANE" track! Automotive terms are reserved for---HIGHWAY vehicles, not railroads and their equipment. Parking has always been acceptable when an aerospace vehicle is in its resting place while on the ground, not spotted, set out, tied up or dropped. Tied down is used when it is fastened to the earth or "ramp", in its parking place or, "spot". I have had to guide airplanes ranging from single seat homebuilt experimentals to C-5 Galaxies to their "parking" spots and depending on how small they were and, weather conditions, use ropes, or even chains to secure them to the ground, as in tying them down. If the situation warranted, they would even be put into a "hangar", not an enginehouse or, shop. The same premise applies to watercraft. No one I know of, speaks of parking an aircraft carrier or 1000 foot lake freighter or, giant container ship. They get secured to a wharf or pier by "tying up" there.
I'll continue to use the terminology for the various forms of transportation as I learned them over the years and save the automotive terms for the Smart cars, Teslas, Peterbuilts and Kenworths. And, the F-18s and the 767s. Never will it be park, lane, lot, or garage if it rolls on T shaped steel rails-just one man's opinion.
Many of the NYC TV stations still insist on calling the person who drives the trains the conductor.
Funny thing: even on trolleys, the conductor was the guy with the nickels; the one driving was the motorman.
I learned at the tender age of 4 about how the 'conductor' got to be the boss of the train, in a fistfight on the Erie with taciturn engineer Hogan...
And a year later, I learned from my subscription to Trains Magazine that the thing behind the engine was a 'tender', no matter what everyone tended to call it, and that the thing up front was a 'pilot', not a 'cowcatcher'.
Wasn’t Benjamin Franklin almost a “conductor”?
OvermodI learned at the tender age of 4 about how the 'conductor' got to be the boss of the train, in a fistfight on the Erie with taciturn engineer Hogan...
You got into a fistfight at the age of 4? Must have been a tough neighborhood.
Overmod Funny thing: even on trolleys, the conductor was the guy with the nickels; the one driving was the motorman. I learned at the tender age of 4 about how the 'conductor' got to be the boss of the train, in a fistfight on the Erie with taciturn engineer Hogan... And a year later, I learned from my subscription to Trains Magazine that the thing behind the engine was a 'tender', no matter what everyone tended to call it, and that the thing up front was a 'pilot', not a 'cowcatcher'.
Cowcatcher. There's another term I hadn't heard in a very long time.
It should be tender and not coal car, right?
I doubt many take the time to checko or care to worry about that. We see it here as critical but do others? I doubt it b/c keeps happening.
NHTX Before too many missiles are hurled at newsreaders or the rest of the Great Unwashed, we, as those who have an interest of varying degrees in railroading, have some navel gazing to do also. Our automobile oriented culture has led to automotive jargon creeping into all aspects of our daily vernacular. A term that is frequently used, even on this forum is "parked", in reference to rail equipment left standing in place somewhere. None of the legions of prototype railroaders I have had the pleasure of crossing paths with ever referred to standing equipment as parked! It was always spotted, set out, dropped, tied up, tied down, or something to that effect. Parked was always reserved for highway vehicles or, airplanes, not rail equipment. After all, we don't refer to a yard as a parking lot, diesel fuel as gas, a shop or engine house as as "garage", a multi-track mainline as a two, three, four or more main as a "fill in the number", LANE" track! Automotive terms are reserved for---HIGHWAY vehicles, not railroads and their equipment. Parking has always been acceptable when an aerospace vehicle is in its resting place while on the ground, not spotted, set out, tied up or dropped. Tied down is used when it is fastened to the earth or "ramp", in its parking place or, "spot". I have had to guide airplanes ranging from single seat homebuilt experimentals to C-5 Galaxies to their "parking" spots and depending on how small they were and, weather conditions, use ropes, or even chains to secure them to the ground, as in tying them down. If the situation warranted, they would even be put into a "hangar", not an enginehouse or, shop. The same premise applies to watercraft. No one I know of, speaks of parking an aircraft carrier or 1000 foot lake freighter or, giant container ship. They get secured to a wharf or pier by "tying up" there. I'll continue to use the terminology for the various forms of transportation as I learned them over the years and save the automotive terms for the Smart cars, Teslas, Peterbuilts and Kenworths. And, the F-18s and the 767s. Never will it be park, lane, lot, or garage if it rolls on T shaped steel rails-just one man's opinion.
But I park my car in the driveway and have driven through a parkway.
Modelers call switches turnouts while railroders call them switches. Hoppers don't flush, gondolas are not little boats, and it's cabin not caboose.
Language is a funny thing. It's a wonder we made it out of the caves.
Have fun.
B&O railroaders around Cumberland, Md. call hopper cars "coal cars".
After I hit an automobile at a crossing a state trooper wanted to know which lane I was in and the year and model of the locomotive.
Mark
wrench567 Modelers call switches turnouts while railroders call them switches. Hoppers don't flush, gondolas are not little boats, and it's cabin not caboose.
Turnouts:
BandO_turnouts by Edmund, on Flickr
The "Switch" refers to the movable point portion of the turnout. Hence "throwing the switch".
Regards, Ed
Ed.
Is this why I am always telling the grandkids to turnout the lights?
We can have a lot of fun with this. I found a cabin car (caboose) diagram that labeled the toilet a hopper and the coal for the stove was put in a bin. Sometimes they are called grab handles and other times handhold. Haven't seen them listed as grab irons.
Even in the big truck and heavy equipment secter, things can be called several names. Look for a driveshaft in a Volvo parts book. It will be under Propeller shaft. Never saw a propeller on a dump truck. Komatsu called a universal joint a cross joint in one book and a spider in another.
wrench567 Language is a funny thing. It's a wonder we made it out of the caves.
With what Putin is doing, we might end up back there.
When I was young, 'turnout' was the British word for the common American 'switch'... you know, the thing that switchmen throw. and United Switch and Signal made components for. The thing in the 'turnout' that moved was (were?) 'points' which was used metonymically for the whole thing, the way 'metals' was used for the track on either side of one.
I confess that even with Ed's correct taxonomy, I still call the things 'switches' and think of 'turnouts' as being a bit affected, like saying precision-crafted motorcar instead of well-built automobile.