A Ride on 2816 Hudson"Empress" Steam.

Train Clown, the two tenders are to haul extra water, as they have torn down all the water tanks. The Hudson here in the west and some of the excursion trains also do it.

Chris, excellant pics, thank you very much for posting them, we all wish we could have joined you, the great days of steam.. Ron..
 
Tender

The first tender is the original and carries oil and water.
The second tender carries 23500 gallons of water. It's from a D&H challenger (according to the fellow who was so carefully polishing all the brass fittings).
The box car has a water treatment system in it.
It looks as if a lot less oil/coal is required (by volume) than water -- they would fill up the fuel once on a trip but stop every 50 miles or so for water. Or even oftener on a freight run. This led to water troughs so that they could fill the tender at full speed.
 
Most steam engine designers built the tenders to keep a 2:1 or even 3:1 fill-up-ratio for water and fuel (coal or oil). That means you had to refill the water tanks twice or three times as often as the fuel compartments.

It was easier to build frequent water tanks along the line than coaling towers - and the tenders would have become giant monsters with a 1:1 ratio!

Ron
 
Originally posted by interurben
Thanks Ron I thought the tenders were for OIL?? May be one for each.;)

Chris -

Since there aren't any tanks at regular intervals out on the line any more, and I am pretty sure that steamers go through water a lot faster than fuel, I would guess that the extra tender is probably for water. The original tender would hold both fuel and water.

That "auxillary" has a lot more class than pulling a 16K gallon tank car.

My question is - what is the red car for? It has an interesting arrangement of doors and windows...

Andrew
 
Big red car

The bright red car was in CP's Christmas light train. It may have been the car with the stage in it (big door takes up most of the side.)
It's missing most of the through connections that would make it passenger train friendly. One of the crew thought it was a mistake to bring it.
 
An FYI for those folks who have a modern setting on their layout but still want to simulate an exscursion like this one w/o the auxillary tender...round these parts the train schedules stops along the way with the local fire departments. They water 'em up using the tank trucks or pumpers off of a nearby hydrant. Would make for a small but interesting trackside scene for you diesel buffs with a steamer collecting dust on a shelf.