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Tank Engine Cab Back, Coal Bunker Interior Photos


Jamiel
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Does anyone have any photos of the back of tank engine cabs looking to the rear from inside the cab?
 

I am specifically interested to see the coal bunker hatch.
 

There seem to be lots of photos of cab interiors looking forward, which is very understandable.
 

I presume that the coal bunkers empty through the same sort of hatch as tenders have, but am interested to know if it is flatter as there may be less room in a tank engine cab, and also because tank engines were often driven backwards.
 

I am modelling a L&Y Class 23 0-6-0, but I presume that many tank engines had similar coal bunker access.
 

Any information, phots or links would be appreciated.
 

Jamie

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I suspect photos of this feature will prove harder to locate than drawings, but your location suggests that there is a small museum in your locality that might well have several examples of prototype practice for you to examine...

 

Many tank locos did indeed have very restricted opportunites to swing shovels properly in their tiny cabs, including some big ones like the GW 8-coupled types.  The rear of the cab/bunker front bulkhead is a neglected area on models, the usual situation being a bunker hidden by plastic coal from the outside and rudimentary levels of detail inside.  I would like to see more producers following the example of the Hornby large prairie; the plastic coal is easily broken out revealing a properly shaped bunker interior, and the coal scuttle is represented both inside and outside the bulkhead.

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Thanks Johnster

It is galling that I do live just a few miles from the National Railway Museum, but in lockdown, I have no access.

When that changes I will go and post some photos.

What is even more galling is that I had a cab ride on a tank engine and did some coal shovelling on a tank engine on the Middleton Railway in Leeds a few years ago. At least I remember where I filled the shovel.

After an hour of searching, this is the best representation I have found from the DJH models website of their J72 7mm kit.



369.jpg

Edited by Jamiel
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Have you got Barry Lane's book, Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Locomotives (2010) Pendragon ISBN 978 1 8998 16 17 0? There are some photos in there which show the back of the cab of a Class 23, although as part of external photos of the full engine. These engines, of course started life with a tender and were later converted to saddle tanks, but the footplate does look cosy, to say the least!

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Thanks LMS2968.

I don't have a copy, but I have been looking at the L&Y Class 0-6-0 tender locos, as I wondered if when they were converted, if some of the tender was cannibalised for the new back end.

Thank you for the suggestion.

The best photo I have found of the back of a cab come from a GWR Large Prairie, as suggested by The Johnster.
 

From A Beginner's Guide to GWR large prairie tanks by Jim Champ, http://www.gwr.org.uk/no-prairies.html

http://www.gwr.org.uk/prairie-pics/6110.jpg

 

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Well not quite as nice as if I had made it before creating the back, but a rough coal bunker door added to the back of my L&Y Class 23 cab. Looks like I need to tidy the rivet strips above now which has desoldered putting in the hatch.
 

Class23_031.jpg

 

When the NRM does reopen I will go and take some photo of font and backs of various loco cabs and post them here.
 

Jamie

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How long is a piece of string?

 

They were all different. Even locomotives in the same class won't always be the same. Stick with trying to find the ones you need as you'll end up with decades worth of work like Mike Sharman did with wheels. Wheels are all they same apparently.....  :prankster:

 

Have you tried the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Trust?

 

https://lyrtrust.org.uk/our-collection/projects/752-0-6-0-saddletank/

 

Or the society?

 

https://www.lyrs.org.uk/

 

If anyone is going to have details then I would start with them. As well as the L&Y Locomotives book by Barry Lane and the relevant volume of the Illustrated History of LMS Locomotives by Essery & Jenkinson.

 

 

Try to avoid copying models. They are not always correct.

 

 

 

Jason

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