Re-allocation of Tenders

[M.I.B]

When tender swaps took place, were they only done at major depots such as Wolverhampton and Swindon?

 

The reason I ask is that I have 2 spare non motorised tenders and plans for a large engine shed. Can these 2 tenders sit quietly at the end of a road, or would they be out of place?

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Any running shed with a fitter on the shed strength could do a job like that. It's basically breaking several semi permanent unions, and unbolting the drawbar; relatively light work for running sheds which routinely took wheelsets out of locos. Look around albums of MPD photos and it is not uncommon to see a loco with the tender detached. (Sightings of detached tenders are a little more unusual, doesn't mean they weren't there, just that the photographer decided to use his exposure on the loco...)

[Poor Old Bruce]

If you are modelling a "large engine shed" which carried out light repairs (some of which would need the loco parting from the tender), you could imagine the scenario where the loco was in the back of the shed in bits and the tender parked outside out of the way. It shouldn't look too odd.

[M.I.B]

Many thanks. One tender belongs to a runner which has been temporarily lost (stashed away by my father 25 years ago and has't unearthed itself yet). Therefore I am loathed to dispose of it, because it's engine will then appear.

 

The other is from a City of Truro Airfix kit and has been finished to a high standard with accessories ( buckets. tools etc) and real coal. The engine was slightly damaged and has been broken up to provide loads for a couple of MACAWs (boiler and firebox on one, wheel sets on another) and some more scrap for the scrap yard (pieces of cab and rodding suitable chopped up to look like general [not steam loco] scrap).

[Nick Holliday]

A possible alternative is that the tenders are in use for some other function. Relatively un-modified old tenders were used as sludge tanks (LBSC examples), as temporary water supplies (High Peak etc.), weed killer trains (Southern at least) and even to carry and store sand for loco use (LBSC again) However this wouldn't help with your coaled and tooled up City of Truro tender, I'm afraid.

[M.I.B]

Thanks Nick - the Truro tender can be hacked about if needs be - but I already have a suitably sad looking sand van, and the location is urban, so no issues with water storage.

[jamie92208]

You could be a bit off the wall and use the 'open day' example and have them rigged up as giant tea urns with a stationary loco providing the steam. I think it was Swindon that did that.

 

Jamie

[Kris]

A possible alternative is that the tenders are in use for some other function. Relatively un-modified old tenders were used as ... weed killer trains (Southern at least)

 

Also on Western Region / GWR as well. I have pictures somewhere (not my copyright so I won't be posting them here) showing 3 or 4 tenders sandwiched between a couple of Toads.

 

 

 

[Poor Old Bruce]

When tender swaps took place, were they only done at major depots such as Wolverhampton and Swindon?

If you want an example of a 'shed swap', Holbeck swapped the tenders of the last two Jubilees shortly before their withdrawl, presumably to provide Kolhapur with a 4000 gallon tender for preservation as it previously had a 3500 gallon one.

[Nick Holliday]

Thanks Nick - the Truro tender can be hacked about if needs be - but I already have a suitably sad looking sand van, and the location is urban, so no issues with water storage.

I wasn't really referring to a temporary supply at the depot itself. As railway buildings and settlements were often found miles away from piped sources of water, they had to make do with whatever they could get hold of. Signal boxes often received their water ration in churns dropped off by passing trains, often noted in the working timetables, and I'm sure isolated stations and railway settlements might have received more substantial deliveries. I wondered whether incidents such as the 1962/3 freeze, or heat waves could have interrupted the regular supplies from natural resources, requiring an emergency provision using whatever can be found. One such incident occured in 1905 when there was a typhoid epidemic in Lincoln and the Midland and the Great Northern ran trains of up to ten old tenders, coupled together in pairs to simplify buffering arrangements, to the town, having filled them up using their water cranes - apparently the Midland supply was occasionally so discoloured that the unfortunate inhabitants preferred to throw it away!

[Harry Basset]

When a tender was detached from a loco I don't think any kit would such as buckets or tools would be left on it, they would quickly be taken to replace lost or damaged items from an in traffic loco. How were engines and tenders split apart? After all pipes and hoses were uncoupled my railway used an 08 to squeeze up and allow the drawbar pin to be knocked or pulled out or the drawbar nut to be unscrewed.