Steam & Excursion > When Your Tender Carries This Much Wood How Do You Take Water?

The recent move of former Polson Logging #45 made me recall one of the most unique features of this little Baldwin 2-6-2, namely the tender.

One can tell from her builder's photo that Polson Brothers wanted her to carry as many cords of wood for fuel as possible.  This explains the enormous wood racks installed at the factory in 1906 when she was built.  However with such tall wood racks and all that wood piled on the tender deck, how is the fireman to get the water spout in to the water opening to fill the tender?

We see the answer in this photo of the rusted remains of #45's tender taken in 2010.  The Baldwin designers incorporated a neat funnel feature into the back wall of the tender with a folding lid to allow the engineer to pull the tender just past the water spout so the spout could be lowered into the funnel and the tender filled in this fashion.  This prevented the water from over flowing onto the tender deck and soaking the wood fuel. 

In later years the engine was converted to oil and the massive wood racks removed.  This eliminated the need to use the funnel at the rear of the tender and a larger and more normal water tank filler was installed on the rear of the tender deck as seen in the last photo.

It is a shame the weather has taken such a toll on #45's tender.  In many ways her tender is every bit as interesting as the engine itself.


Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/15 03:27 by LoggerHogger.

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Very interesting photos Martin,   I sure enjoy them,   Mike in Ohio.    What a collection you have...

Nothing a little Bondo won't fix...........

Where was the tender photo taken?

Mike Root
Madras, OR

LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> It is a shame the weather has taken such a toll on
> #45's tender.  In many ways her tender is every
> bit as interesting as the engine itself.

Looking at the damage, I have to wonder if that was all due to weather, or if maybe the tender was never drained after the last use, and it sat full of water for years. It sure looks to me like it rusted out from the inside out.

Or if it was drained, if the manhole was left open so that every time it rained the tank got a couple of inches of water, which might take quite a while to evaporate dry in a humid climate.

shortlineboss Wrote:
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> Where was the tender photo taken?

Mike, the photo was taken looking in a northeasterly direction toward the MRSR shop in Mineral, Washington.  The clouds in the notch between the hills in the distance are blocking out a nice view of Mt. Rainier.