QUOTE (10001 @ 8 Sep 2007, 08:42)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Vanderbuilt tenders may just have been built by Vanderbuilt !!!!!!!
He certainly was not a South African
Perhaps ( like tank wagons) a cylindrical shape was less liable to allow fluids to slosh about making wagons & tenders more
stable. They were not all that modern either .Most newer S,A & USA locos had square tenders.
Tony (10001)
Sorry about the mis-spelling above. I have been looking through my " Boys Own Golden Picture Book of Railways"and have found a bit more info on Vanderbilt tenders.
Cornelius Vanderbilt was granted a patent for a tender with a cylindrical tank on 31/5/1901 so they were not as modern as they look. Mr V was the great grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt who built up an emormous shipping, transport and railroad empire . He started by buying a boat to ferry goods about the Hudson River, eventually owning the largest schooner and earning the nickname "Commodore".He started his railroad empire by buying one line after another and these became the New York Central Railroad. In 1935 the NYC streamlined one of their 4-8-4 naming it "Commodore Vanderbilt"
Many American lines used the tender none more so than the Great Northern , and the Baltimore and Ohio ( on 2-8-8-2 Mallets) A giant 4-12-2 of the Union Pacific had one making it look even longer!
Other countries using them were South Africa, Canada,Norway and New Zealand . I could not find any Australian vdb.
Although Britain did not have any, quite a few were made there . North British made the S.A 2-8-4Class 24 (above picture )
and the N.Z 4-6-2 Ab class built in 1915 and the "steamlined" J class of 1939. Although streamlined they were built for N.Z
branch lines and rarely exceeded 50 mph!
I could not find any reference to them being used in arid regions- usually large tank wagons were coupled up the loco even the huge S.A Garretts.That leads me to a question - can any one tell me which Garrett loco ran with a Vanderbilt tender.
Tony (10001)