Okay so I was looking at the prototype photo/illustration of the rogers 2-4-2, and noticed like, there appears to only be a very very smalll coal bunker in the back.
Well, this is what made me recall other tank engines and got me thinking, where the heck is the coal bunker on many small switcher engines (0-4-0Ts especially)?
I googled it before and apparently some industrial engines just used whatever coal was lying around/used buckets in the cab? So they just… don’t have coal bunkers then?
Yes. It’s a tank engine. The water is carried in the tank over the boiler and coal or wood on the floor of the cab. No need for a tender as these locos were used for switching or short trips so never very far from a fuel/water source.
Our number 2 (45-ton Porter 0-4-0) at the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern tourist railroad originally had no coal bunker. The locomotive was first used by a Colorado Coal and Iron Co. foundry in Birdsboro, PA. A coal and coke supply was readily available at the foundry, so the fireman would just shovel what he needed onto the floor of the cab.
Later, the volunteers at the W, K & S built a coal tender on the frame of an old Plymouth industrial diesel. However, I like seeing a coal bunker so my #2 has it.
I have a couple of bigger engines that have tiny coal bunkers like the Bachmann 2-4-2 Lynn and the Bachmann 2-6-6-2. The 2-6-6-2 has such a tiny bunker it does look odd not having a loaded tender but they were industrial engines so they probably loaded up with coal/water headed out with the empties to swap for a full train of wood etc and then back they came. Done in a day.
If you are concerned Max you could always add a tender to your train.
Very similar to a loco model I worked on a couple years ago.
An 0-4-2, with a wood bin over a water tank in back of the cab.
But as to the original post photo, yeah, I’d echo Dan’s thoughts that the coal (or wood) was in a very small bunker at the rear, or on the floor.
Also, I’d think that the loco might operate on a city line (or in a yard) where fuel was available all along its route, or where it could consistently stop at key points. This was the case for the loco I modelled, where it would load up (fuel and water) at the mill, do its little out and back (12 miles total), refuel/rewater, and repeat as much as four times a day.
