I just recieved two of the new Bachmann vandy tenders and thought I would give a small review. I bought a B-mann 2-6-6-2 hoping the new tender would work with it. It's a perfect fit. Take the old tender off, the new tender is the same exact fit. So much for that. Here are a few pix. The shell is held on to the undercairrage by two screws at the ends of the frame on the underside. One is at the end and the other is at the other end off to the side. You do not have to remove the trucks to remove the body of the tender. Inside is a circuitboard that looks like it is DCC ready. It comes with a dummy coupler. It will couple with a MT coupler except it is off height wise by half a coupler. It unhooks if the track is uneven in the least bit. Needless to say my track is uneven in a few places. And, of course the wheels are out of guage. Thats not to hard to fix. The biggest problem I had was that one of the tenders would derail in curves. On further inspection I found that the trucks didnt want to pivot freely. One tender was fine, the other was driving me crazy. What I found was that when the trucks were removed the one that did dreail had pins that ran up into the frame that were straight up. The ones that didnt derail were slightly bent outward at the top of the pins. A slight "V" shape. Once done this corrected the problem. It looks like a 2004 MT coupler would be a good conversion. It also comes with Rapido couplers that you will have to install. Unfortunately my 2-6-6-2 doesnt pull any better with the new tender. Oh well..
That looks great! I'm here at our daughter's in Charleston,W.Va. and on the way picked up a book by Thomas W. Dixon Jr. entitled "Chesapeakeand Ohio Railway in the Coal Fields of West Virginia and Kentucky" that has some great shots of the C&O 2-6-6-2's. Apparently they loved these for their mine runs. I've got a Bachmann 2-6-6-2 that I re-lettered for NYC as they used them for the same purpose. It looks good on our NTrak layouts hauling 16 hoppers. I may try one of the new "high side" tenders on mine for the DCC hookup option.
Thanks for the report. The engine really looks good with the new tender I have seen that they also offer the vandy tender in New Haven. For what engine is it? Since I am not the New Haven expert, I don't know whether it might fit the NH light Mountain (the only NH steamer I have). Any information is appreciated.
Is that the correct tender for 1522? Do you have a list of 2-6-6-2's that had the Vandy tender. The pic's I've seen of the H5 series have either the small box, or a small vandy, but not the "long haul" vandy. I really like the appearance it has with the "long haul" vandy and if appropriate I might switch it out!
Guess I can't verify that H-5s had Vandy tenders - I think that since this class was one of the USRA standard designs, they probably left the shops with a rectangular tender. I'll dig around some more and see what I can find. It's possible that some H-5s may have received Vanderbilts later - I know some of the C&O Mallets did get Vanderbilts to replace the rectangular tenders... H-5s were numbered 1520 - 1539.
Those new tenders are nice. I'm in the process of replacing all the six wheel tenders on my LL 2-8-8-2's, so that they more closely resemble the Northern Pacific's Z-4 class mallets. Here is the first one converted. I've also done a little modification to the loco since this picture was taken. Also included is a picture of my UP light mountain with the new Vandy tender.
The H-4 and H-6 2-6-6-2s had Vanderbilts - I have some books that have nice pics of those. I just gotta think that some of the H-5s ended up with Vandys...
I really like it!!! Great shot, oldrk. Now I guess I'll need to get some of these on order. I would like to cobble up a B&O T3 4-8-2 with a Vanderbilt - this tender should help make it look right. Who knows - maybe one of these can help my 2-6-6-2 run better...
did you shorten the drawbar? and if so, how? with mine the space is about 6 feet across, but your pics seem much closer, but don't show a dead on side view. tried the drawbar from the original tender, but it's too short.
That looks super! The NYC didn't use Vandy's on their 2-6-6-2's or I'd replace my high side in a heartbeat.
What a better way to treat a new tender, than to chop it up to fit the application. Here is my vandy tender with oil bunker and shortened to fit my SP P-10. I have shortened it by nearly 1/2 inch.
Running better Tim, I managed to sneek some weight in different places on the 2-6-6-2. A piece glued on the bottom of the boiler in the very front. A small piece at the very front inside the boiler, another small pice in one of the sand domes and lastly in the cab. I do believe it pulls a few more cars with the added weight.
Model Power made a short version on four wheel trucks, but it is too small for the P-10 application (6 wheel trucks), plus it is not based on an SP prototype. The MP one is better suited for a 2-8-0. The Bmann vandy that is shorter is based off of the one behind the AC class, MT's and 4-10-2's and didn't see service behind their Pacifics, it doesn't have live pickup on the wheels either.
