A further approach -- I don't remember seeing it on tenders but I planned for it with 'modern steam' -- is the inverted-siphon approach used on the GATX TankTrains.
This put the large-diameter flexible pipe connection between cars, up high at the top of the fill space, with a siphon pipe down close to the bottom of the tank inside the car. This put the pipe up out of harm's way, but as you filled one car full you had a large-diameter connection to the next car, which would act as an inverted siphon between cars when all were full: liquid drawn from the 'front' car would induce flow back through all the siphons so all the cars would empty in 'parallel' automatically as long as the bottoms didn't unport...
Overmod rcdrye If the main and auxiliary tender are connected by a hose, filling one will raise the water level in the other. This is in fact how 4014 does it; there is no pumped transfer. The issue is that the dimensions of the hose to the auxiliary tender dictate the filling rate. What is perfectly adequate mass flow to serve two Nathan 4000s at full gun is not going to equilibrate the flow going into the cistern from any large standpipe -- so you'd need a comparable-diameter pipe, with proper air relief up top, to be able to fill 'both' from a high-volume source. And for any steam locomotive of output that justifies the complexity... and that is intended to run over about 130 miles between stops at that output... but still needs to be refilled in 'comparable' time, there needs to be lots of cross-sectional area into that auxiliary. My suspicion is that 'common sense' will be to size the breakable transfer line to injector or FWH capability, and just stage the A-tanks sequentially under the big spigot and fill 'em separately. Or switch the pumper hose from one to the other tender to get marginally faster fill if you want or need it... Incidentally, my understanding of a great deal of ATSF practice was to locate somewhat sophisticated water-treatment plants in 'bad water' areas and pump the treated water asynchronously into a large tank -- they would use a larger tank if double tanks needed to be filled rather than transport millions of 'cheaper' gallons around the system...
rcdrye If the main and auxiliary tender are connected by a hose, filling one will raise the water level in the other.
This is in fact how 4014 does it; there is no pumped transfer.
The issue is that the dimensions of the hose to the auxiliary tender dictate the filling rate. What is perfectly adequate mass flow to serve two Nathan 4000s at full gun is not going to equilibrate the flow going into the cistern from any large standpipe -- so you'd need a comparable-diameter pipe, with proper air relief up top, to be able to fill 'both' from a high-volume source. And for any steam locomotive of output that justifies the complexity... and that is intended to run over about 130 miles between stops at that output... but still needs to be refilled in 'comparable' time, there needs to be lots of cross-sectional area into that auxiliary.
My suspicion is that 'common sense' will be to size the breakable transfer line to injector or FWH capability, and just stage the A-tanks sequentially under the big spigot and fill 'em separately. Or switch the pumper hose from one to the other tender to get marginally faster fill if you want or need it...
Incidentally, my understanding of a great deal of ATSF practice was to locate somewhat sophisticated water-treatment plants in 'bad water' areas and pump the treated water asynchronously into a large tank -- they would use a larger tank if double tanks needed to be filled rather than transport millions of 'cheaper' gallons around the system...
With regard to fill rate and pipe size, yes this can be a problem.
An example from another two tank application - the 1901 Queen Anne house I restored in 1996 has two 275 gallon fuel oil tanks for the boiler. The tanks are manifolded together at the bottom with the same 3/8" copper line that feeds the boiler, able to supply a flow rate to the boiler in excess of 1 gallon an hour if needed, and drawing equally from both tanks.
But it would take a long time for that line to fill the second tank by equalization during a fill up.
So the 1-1/2" supply piping is like this - the fill goes into the top of tank one, tank one is connected to tank two, top to top, and the vent line is on tank two.
When the oil truck comes, tank one fills, pushing air thru the connection pipe and out the vent of tank two, until tank one is flooded. Then fuel moves thru the connecting pipe filling tank two. As tank two reaches full capacity, the vent whistle does its thing and the driver knows both tanks are full.
And three or four hours latter, the level is equal in both tanks.........
Sheldon
rcdryeIf the main and auxiliary tender are connected by a hose, filling one will raise the water level in the other.
The hose would have to have the flow capacity equal to the volume of water that the standpipe is able to flow. Standpipes seem to be somewhere between 10 and 15 inches in diameter and the water flow seems to use most of that diameter, otherwise the tender being filled would have to have its filling stopped until the water level equalized with the canteen - the procedure would have to be repeated until both were full.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
The Frisco used some auxiliary water cars, primarily I believe in the more arid country at the west of the system, although I sometimes saw them attached to locomotives at the roundhouse in Springfield, Missouri, when I was growing up.
I saw one used by the Strasburg railroad a few years back when they had one of their steam engines on display at a special event in Lancaster, Pa.
Much as I love steam, all this points to the practically of the diesel. Santa Fe quickly discovered this when they didn't have to transport a million gallons of water to one location with the coming of the FT units.
If the main and auxiliary tender are connected by a hose, filling one will raise the water level in the other.
How would one be able to fill two tenders at once, since usually steam locomotives were filled from overhead water towers? I don't think that the water towers had multiple spouts nor would you have two water towers next to each other. Of course , the second tender could be filled by a hose connected to some auxiliary water source....
One could be filling both tenders at once, so it ought not take any longer.
CSSHEGEWISCH I would think that while auxiliary water tenders could extend a locomotive's range, it would also extend the time necessary to refuel and re-water.
I would think that while auxiliary water tenders could extend a locomotive's range, it would also extend the time necessary to refuel and re-water.
An auxiliary water tender would allow a steam locomotive to run an entire district without a need to stop for water.
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I don't know if it is relevant to your question, but in Canada there was some fairly routine use of auxiliary water tenders. While routine, it was mostly limited to prairie branch lines with light traffic and behind 4-6-0s. Maintaining water towers costs money, so it was cost effective to increase the spacing by carrying the extra water with the train, especially if it is a "mixed" once a week in the off-harvest times. Water quality at some locations could be undesirable too.
SPerLike N&W, B&O, and IC, did Union Pacific ever used auxiliary water tenders on steam locomotives in the steam era without stopping for water.
I don't recall the B&O using canteen's with their steam engines. Towards the end of steam they tended to use extremely large tenders on the order of 25 Tons of coal and 25K gallons of water.
Why no Western railroads used auxiliary water tenders in the steam era at all, what's the reason
UP and SP did not use auxiliary water tenders in the steam era. In some ways this is surprising, but other western roads did not use them much, if at all.
Like N&W, B&O, and IC, did Union Pacific ever used auxiliary water tenders on steam locomotives in the steam era without stopping for water.
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