I’ve always wondered why I’ve never seen or read anything about the Santa Fe using auxiliary water tenders in the steam days. I’ve read that a big reason the AT&SF wanted FTs right away was because of the constant issue of needing water for steam locomotives in the desert. It would seem to me that an extra water tender would’ve been a staple of operations for a line that crossed 100s of miles of tough, remote desert where both civilization and water can be scarce. It really threw me for a loop when I saw a photo of an Illinois Central 4-8-2 with an auxiliary tender coupled on. It would seem to me that the IC wouldn’t need any nearly as bad as the Santa Fe. But then again, I’m not an expert, only an enthusiast.
I read that water tanks were for speeding up operations. Steam would have to stop for water more often than coal. Extra tanks let them skip some water stops.
And toward the end of steam, "canteens" allowed closure of intermediate watering facilities. Using an old Bachmann tender, I made this one for my N Scale road. It has a half-hidden Rapido coupler on one truck and a M-T on the other, so I can use it with my older steam power and not have to work out an M-T conversion on each. I need to do something about those shiny wheels ….
Along with water being hard to find on occation out west, sometimes when you found it, it was very hard water, and left a lot of deposits, which led to water treatment in locations. This also led to those water deposits clogging water site glasses and low water problems. The ATSF requested the war production board to give them some of the first FT's Also a big reason the DRGW dieselized the desert between Grand Junction and helper first.
Which railroad are we talking about? The one that attached six axle, ten thousand gallon tenders to Consolidations and Prairies, while Texas types and Northerns got these 25,000 gallon monsters? Who needs auxiliaries?
