Large Scale Central

Cab height vs tender

General Discussion
#1
Ray Dunakin said:
Is the cab supposed to sit so much higher than the deck of the tender?
A while back I asked this question about the Aristocraft C-16. Since then I looked at a lot of prototype photos and found that the real C-16 cab is indeed much higher than the tender deck. I started noticing that on many other types of locos too.

So now I’m wondering how this height difference was handled. Did the fireman just stay in the tender and shovel coal from there? Was there big gap between the cab floor and the tender deck?

The few real locos I’ve been able to look at up close, the tender and cab were all at the same height, with a deck plate between them.

#2

I’ve always assumed that on locos such as the Baldwin 4-6-0 the fireman was on the tender…at least while shoveling coal.
The firebox is at the very rear of the loco, and the cab roof extends far to the rear. Of course, on our Bachmanns, the tender is not tucked up as close to the loco as it is on the prototype.
Ralph

#3

While visiting the EBT during the Fall Spectaculars, I’ve always been aware of the uneven heights of the tenders to the engine and not sitting level. Now these are totally different engines than C-16’s, but on models the tenders are almost always shown as fully loaded for a long run. There has got to be room for compression on those springs and if empty the deck height is going to be different. So I guess I’m trying to illustrate there is going to be a lot of variables in tender height as to amount of fuel and water.

#4

Some of it has to do with the decked vs deckless cabs… a 1:1 example a lot of people can get up close and see is the two engines at Tweetsie… #12 has a deckless cab, so the fireman pretty much works from the tender deck, which is wider (longer?) to accomodate him than on a decked cab… and it can be a step UP into the cab (on either side of the boiler.) #190 is a cab with a deck, where the fireman stands on the cab floor and reaches into the tender with the scoop … in this case the floor is generally level between the engine and the tender across the deckplate. BUT There are also two styles of cab. With one, the cab walls come all the way down to the floor at deck level, and there is no step up anywhere in the cab. The other, the sides of the cab are higher than the deck, and there’s generally a “step” on each side of the boiler that the seatbox sits on, and you step UP before sitting down… and the floor is a foot or more lower than what appears to be the bottom of the cab from the outside… meaning that from the outside of the engine, the cab deck can look a great deal higher than it actually is, and way above the deck. In this photo, note the difference between the apparent bottom of the cab (white stripe) and the actual deck height (top of the steps, top of the tender frame.)

(http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo=2008102320092031827.jpg)

That’s the size of the step up from the deck to the side floors where the seat boxes are. If the engine deck were that high, you WOULD have to stand in the tender to fire, and it’d be a long reach! This photo shows the height difference from the inside of the cab…

(http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?200707292330545821.jpg)

On the other hand this engine:

(http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?2004050720245822969.jpg)

Has a deck that’s the same height all the way across the floor … and the white stripe at the bottom of the cab matches both the one level floor and the tender deck. Easier? Matthew (OV)

#5

Ray, I ‘cheated’ here, but did it just to raise the relative height of the deck.

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/tim_brien/_forumfiles/abbbc.JPG)