Tender chassis construction

[nberrington]

Greetings all - and Happy New Year to you!

My entrance into P4 continues to raise more questions. Now onto the tender for my Class 700.

Any thoughts on the best way to deal with a tender chassis? Mr Rice has a "fixed rear axle, floating front axles with fine wire springs"

Puzzed and perplexed, I wondered if it would not be simpler to have the front 2 axles compensated like a normal goods wagon? (Is this a might too simplistic?)

Perhaps there are some good informative photos like in the case of the pick-up discussion!

[Tim V]

Unlike loco chassis, tenders are much more difficult to photograph. I basically use Pendlenton's system of fully sprung suspension (MRJ 6), using parallel axles. As I have a lathe, this is quite simple to make, but utilising Exatoscale parallel bearings and axle conversion packs is a way around. The bearings sit inside slots, just visible on the middle axle. This also has side play. The wheels are Studiolith, mounted on some experimental axles. This tender is not yet finished, but is representative of the others I have.

IMG_2230.JPG

This is the tender on a ROD 2-8-0, incorporating a Canon 1833 motor, step down box, split axle pickups. I believe in making the tender work for its living

[jls_s4]

For my recent effort (Dapol/Branchlines City/Flower Class 4-4-0) I chose to do as you suggest, ie, fixed rear axle with front two compensated on a single centre beam. There is no weight transfer from the tender to the loco, just a simple fixed upward vertical peg at the front of the tender and a swinging link with hole at the rear of the loco. The fall plate is fixed to the floor of the cab with slight clearance above the tender floor so when coupling the loco link is fitted over the tender peg. A complication on mine was to use the tender wheels for pick-up so there are fine wires between tender and loco as well.

On reflection I'm not sure whether it is best to fix the front or rear axle but as long as there is lateral movement allowed for in the coupling arrangement it should stay on the rails - plenty of weight will help too, as mine is plastic I loaded it with lead (or what passes for lead over here now)!

[timlewis]

Purists will probably throw up their hands in horror, but here's some pics of my J25 tender. It's split frame, all axles sprung, shorting wires from rims to axles, which are retained by simple bent fuse wire. The springing is by bent PB wire which acts on the axleboxes (I soldered little tubes to the axleboxes for the wire to engage in, but I'm not convinced this is really necessary. Like Tim V, I believe tenders should work for their living, so this one has a Mashima 1833 driving a High Level box via a cardan shaft. This arrangement means that I don't need to bother with any pickups on the loco.

It looks a bit of a mess, but it's all hidden by the body, and it works very well!

DSCN1699small.JPG

dscn1706small.jpg

Hope this helps.