Water Scoop Question

[gp792]

Hi all,

I have a question: Were water scoops exclusive to tender engines, or were they also fitted to tank engines as well?

 

[cascaderailroad]

I think they were limited to high speed locos, like PRR and NYC ... and vandals who fouled the water tank tracks with junk baby carriages, and lawn mowers, etc, played H-E double toothpicks with the water scoop, when it couldn't retract in time for the tank track end, as it was sucked up the junkyard debris into the scoop mechanism, and it tore off the end of the water tank track, and ripped off the water scoop, oftentimes causing a derailment ... Those dastardly vandals !

 

[mjolnir]

Note: cascaderailroad and I are both writing from a US perspective; it is possible that water scoops may have been applied to high speed tank engines in other regions of the world.

Theoretically, there was nothing inherent about tank engines and water scoops that would have prevented water scoops from being applied. From a practical matter, however, as Cascaderailroad noted, water scoops were applied to high speed trains, their principal reason for being applied being to make it unnecessary to stop to take on water, and in the US, tank engines were not used in high speed service. Indeed, I don't think I've seen a photo of a tank engine with large drivers; they all had small drivers, and therefore were intended for slow speed service, generally where clearances were tight.

 

[bendorsey]

When taking on water the rate of water intake was quite high. So much so some provision had to be made to allow the air in the tender to escape before the over pressure blew out the sides of the tender. Since this operation occurred at high speed having a brakeman or fireman walk back and open the water hatch wasn't safe. If you look at the tender of the NYC 4-8-4 class S1 for example you can see 5 short pipes per side between the tender bogey wheels angled backwards. These were to allow that air to escape as the tender filled much more rapidly then normal. There is a photo of one of the scoops in the lower left corner of page 230 of the MR Cyclopedia and the caption explains the need for air vents.

A video of one of these taking on water is quite spectacular (just don't stand to close or you will get soaked, lol).

Ben

 

[whitepass]

Where would you even put a water scoop on a tank loco?

 

[cascaderailroad]

LOL !

You can not put a DCC decoder sound system in Thomas the Tank Engine ... as Thomas has no tender

 

[jacksonbarno]

There were some B&A, CNJ, and CN 4-6-4T and 4-6-6T tank engines meant for commuter service that were built, but none of them ever ran long distance trains. Since the B&A, CNJ, and CN never used water scoops, I would wager that these locomotives were not fitted with them.
Also, 2-6-2T locomotives were widely used in the years before WWII.

 

[bendorsey]

Water scoops aren't particularly big and would in all likelihood be sized to fit the loco so there probably is room on a tank loco for one - perhaps under the cab. The real question is WHY?

As for DCC decoders on tank locos. I have a HOn3 0-6-0T and looked into it. Its possible but definitely a serious squeeze play and that's using the smallest decoder I could find (N scale I think). Would take a pair of eyeballs a lot younger then mine to accomplish it, lol.

Ben