Corridor Tenders - Any use overseas?

[delt1c]

Some A4's were given corridor tenders in order to allow crew changes enroute without stopping. I am not aware of corridor tenders being used on any other classes here in the UK but wondering if they were used anywhere else overseas.

 

[Taunton]

They were used on other classes in the UK - but they were the same tenders, just switched occasionally to other locomotives. It was a peculiarly LNER thing to do the "nonstop". Quite why they couldn't have stopped to change crews at York, halfway along, where they had to slow right down through the station anyway, has to be attrituted to the PR department. They did of course cut down on coal and water space, which on the "longest nonstop in the world" was pretty important. I wonder what Gresley thought of it all ...

 

[hexagon789]

Some A4's were given corridor tenders in order to allow crew changes enroute without stopping. I am not aware of corridor tenders being used on any other classes here in the UK but wondering if they were used anywhere else overseas.

A3s and A1s had them, Flying Scotsman being a prime example. Not all within each class had them though not even with the A4s and as Taunton states they were swapped between locos and even between classes.

Going abroad, The Milwaukee Road in the US used corridor tenders for its Hiawatha express service enabling a 6.5 hour timing.

 

[Taunton]

Notably the Milwaukee run, from Chicago to Minneapolis, was just about the same distance and duration as London to Edinburgh. I wonder how many crews were involved. US unions were very protective abot 100 miles = a day's work and pay.

 

[hexagon789]

Notably the Milwaukee run, from Chicago to Minneapolis, was just about the same distance and duration as London to Edinburgh. I wonder how many crews were involved. US unions were very protective abot 100 miles = a day's work and pay.

Slightly longer - 410 miles to Saint Paul (6 hrs 30); 421 miles to Minneapolis (7 hours). The service was not non-stop either, there were seven intermediate calls.

Timetabled MAS was 100mph from 1938, having previously been increased from 70mph to 90mph in 1935.

It was further reduced to 6 hrs 45 overall in 1954 with 8 or 9 intermediate stops depending on direction I presume with diesel locomotives now providing motive power.

 

[Taunton]

Well if there were 7 stops, presumably at the established division points, whatever did they need corridor tenders for?

 

[oldman]

They did of course cut down on coal and water space, which on the "longest nonstop in the world" was pretty important. I wonder what Gresley thought of it all ...

According to the RCTS green books, they actually carried more coal (9 tons instead of 8) and the same amount of water, although with water-troughs that would have mattered less. My impression is that Gresley was not averse to publicity ...

 

[hexagon789]

Well if there were 7 stops, presumably at the established division points, whatever did they need corridor tenders for?

I don't really have an answer, but on searching I found a reference to the Baltimore & Ohio having corridor tenders on its P-7 Presidential Class rebuilt streamlined locos used on the Cincinnatian. This was also not non-stop but apparently the corridor tenders allowed one crew stop to be cut which was important to maintaining the very tight schedule which had no schedule padding in it.

Perhaps the same was true of the Milwaukee Road?

 

[Taunton]

... I found a reference to the Baltimore & Ohio having corridor tenders on its P-7 Presidential Class rebuilt streamlined locos used on the Cincinnatian. This was also not non-stop but apparently the corridor tenders allowed one crew stop to be cut which was important to maintaining the very tight schedule which had no schedule padding in it.

The Cincinnatian's (Baltimore to Cincinnati) main claim to fame was it was the first train designed by a woman, Olive Dennis, who did both loco and coach styling and interior details, through to specifying roller bearings on the driving axles https://nationalrrmuseum.org/blog/olive-dennis-innovating-the-passenger-experience/

 

[dubscottie]

Quite why they couldn't have stopped to change crews at York, halfway along, where they had to slow right down through the station anyway, has to be attrituted to the PR department. I wonder what Gresley thought of it all ...

Remember this was done because it had never been done before.
Yes they could stop at York but the train wouldn't be non stop.
Sadly few people now have the drive of the past. The "bigger, faster, further“ generation seems to have died in the late 70s.

 

[hexagon789]

The Cincinnatian's (Baltimore to Cincinnati) main claim to fame was it was the first train designed by a woman, Olive Dennis, who did both loco and coach styling and interior details, through to specifying roller bearings on the driving axles https://nationalrrmuseum.org/blog/olive-dennis-innovating-the-passenger-experience/

An interesting claim to fame, the innovation in train design in this period was really second to none. It remains my favourite period in US railways (1930s-1950s) even though I'm not really a steam fan as such!

Yes they could stop at York but the train wouldn't be non stop.

The LMS made crew changes stops at Carlisle and still claimed to be "non-stop"

 

[Colin1501]

Remember this was done because it had never been done before.
Yes they could stop at York but the train wouldn't be non stop.
Sadly few people now have the drive of the past. The "bigger, faster, further“ generation seems to have died in the late 70s.

It also doesn't fit with modern travel habits. Only a proportion of passengers boarding at King's Cross are going through to Edinburgh, and think about the numbers who board at stops en route. A non-stop train today would be half empty.

 

[Merle Haggard]

It wasn't just the LNER that used corridor tenders in this country.
The LMS had one, but I bet that almost everyone's forgotten (or didn't know about) another loco with a corridor tender; GT3.

 

[delt1c]

It wasn't just the LNER that used corridor tenders in this country.
The LMS had one, but I bet that almost everyone's forgotten (or didn't know about) another loco with a corridor tender; GT3.

Please tell more which loco on the LMS had a corridor tender

 

[Taunton]

Please tell more which loco on the LMS had a corridor tender

I believe it was normally kept at Crewe works and just attached to whichever loco required it for special, presumably test purposes. The same seemed to apply to "self weighing tenders", where the coal space was on a large scales so the detailed consumption could be measured; these only seemed attached to LM types. I wonder how many of those there were.

 

[Spartacus]

There's more on the LMS tender here; http://www.traintesting.com/MTU.htm

 

[randyrippley]

I believe it was normally kept at Crewe works and just attached to whichever loco required it for special, presumably test purposes. The same seemed to apply to "self weighing tenders", where the coal space was on a large scales so the detailed consumption could be measured; these only seemed attached to LM types. I wonder how many of those there were.

Someone posted a link recently to a photo of one of the self-weighing tenders, I think attached to a 9F (or maybe a Black 5) - probably in that thread about far-ranging Midland drivers