The side rods on the rear tender truck indicate that this is a tender booster to increase tractive effort during low-speed operation. When slowed by a heavy grade, the engineer could send steam to a small engine on the tender truck, and this was enough to prevent stalling. The stack on the back of the tender was the steam exhaust from the booster.
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| Posted by CNR3724 on December 23, 2020 | |
Interesting "booster" built into the rear tender truck. I've never seen on incorporated into a 6 wheel truck before.
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Bert Pennypacker wrote an article called "When Steam Ruled the Lehigh Valley" in a summer 1969 issue of "Railfan" magazine. Some excellent photos and a comment or two from men who worked on engines. IIRC one of these men observed that these tender boosters were a real maintenance problem because of the rods working and moving all the time, and that eventually at least some engines received Franklin trailing truck boosters. Regardless, this is another beautiful photo and please keep them coming!
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