Harry,
Thanks once again for passing along the addition information.
The "on-the-fly" operation is pretty much the way I had envisioned it. Bet
that was a a sight to see. Preferably from a distance, no doubt. <grin> Sounds
like trying to fill a bucket with a fire hose.
My searches (although covering only about an hour and a half) hasn't turned
up any photos, very little information, and only one sketch. I did find
documentation of a diesel locomotive engineers thoughts on the water pickup as
he took his first ride on a steamer. If it's of interest to anyone, it's at
www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/railroad/alcohist.html. It's down the page at
the, "Some recollections of a former Alco Engineer". Brief mention of taking on
water at 80 MPH.
Any hints as to a direction to take with a wider search on this subject?
Would love to see a picture of the action.
One interesting (to me) bit of information was found in my "North American
Locomotives" book was that special venting had to be provided to the tender to
prevent bursting the tender when picking up water. It was claimed that there
were cases of this happening. Makes sense because water is incompressible.
Later,
Trent
P.S.- Nasty weather makes for good research days.
Harry Wade wrote:
> Many railroads installed shallow miles-long water troughs between the
> rails of main lines which were filled with water.
