Tank locomotive

A modern replica of Novelty, the first tank locomotive

The first tank locomotive was the Novelty that ran at the Rainhill Trials in 1829.[1] It was an example of a Well Tank. However, the more common form of Side tank date from the 1840s; one of the first of these was supplied by George England and Co. of New Cross to the contractors building the Newhaven, Sussex branch line for the London Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1848.[2] In spite of the early belief that such locomotives were inherently unsafe,[3] the idea quickly caught on, particularly for industrial use and five manufacturers exhibited designs at The Great Exhibition in 1851. These were E. B. Wilson and Company, William Fairbairn & Sons, George England, Kitson Thompson and Hewitson and William Bridges Adams.[4] By the mid-1850s tank locomotives were to be found performing a variety of main line and industrial roles, particularly those involving shorter journeys or frequent changes in direction.

Side tanks are cuboid-shaped tanks which are situated on both sides of the boiler, extending all or part of the boiler's length. Side tank locomotives carry water in rectangular tanks mounted on either side of the locomotive, next to the boiler but touching it. The tank sides extend down to the running platform, if such is present, for at least part of their length. This was a common configuration in the UK.

The length of side tanks was often limited in order to give access to the inside motion. Tanks that ran the full length of the boiler provided greater water capacity and, in this case, cut-outs in the rectangular tank gave access to the motion. Longer side tanks were sometimes tapered downwards at the front to improve forward visibility. Side tanks almost all stopped at, or before, the end of the boiler barrel, with the smokebox protruding ahead. A few designs did reach to the front of the smokebox and these were termed 'flatirons'.

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  A typical side tank locomotive from 1897
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  An example with a tapered front and cut-out to give access to the motion

The water tank sits on top of the boiler like a saddle sits atop a horse. Usually, the tank is curved in cross-section, although in some cases there were straight sides surmounted by a curve (like an inverted 'U'), or even an ogee shape (a concave arc flowing into a convex arc). Saddle tanks were a popular arrangement especially for smaller locomotives in industrial use. It gave a greater water supply, but limited the size of the boiler and restricted access to it for cleaning. Furthermore, the locomotive has a higher centre of gravity and hence must operate at lower speeds. The driver's vision may also be restricted, again restricting the safe speed.

Water in the tank is slightly pre-heated by the boiler, which reduces the loss of pressure found when cold feedwater is injected into the boiler. However, if the water becomes too hot, injectors lose efficiency and can fail. For this reason, the tanks often stopped short of the hotter and uninsulated smokebox.

Large USA 2-8-2 ST. Note the short tank, avoiding both firebox and smokebox

The squared-off shape of the Belpaire firebox does not fit easily beneath a saddle tank, and so most saddle tanks retained the older round-topped boiler instead. A few American locomotives used saddle tanks that only covered the boiler barrel, forward of the firebox.

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  A typical curved saddle tank
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  A saddle tank with both straight sides and a protruding smokebox

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A GWR 57xx class pannier tank locomotive

Pannier tanks are box-shaped tanks carried on the sides of the boiler, similar to side tanks, but not going all the way down to the locomotive's running plates, leaving a space between each tank and the running plate. The pannier arrangement lowers the centre of gravity compared to a saddle tank, whilst still allowing easy access to the inside motion that the latter gave. Pannier tanks are so-named because of their positioning's similarity to the position of a pannier on a pack animal.

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In Britain, Pannier Tank locomotives were used almost exclusively by the Great Western Railway. The first Great Western pannier tanks were converted from saddle tank locomotives[5] when these were being rebuilt in the early 1900s with the Belpaire firebox. There were difficulties in accommodating the flat top of the latter within an encircling saddle tank which cut down capacity and increased the tendency to overheat the water in the tank.[6] Pannier tank locomotives are often seen as an icon of the GWR.

In Belgium, pannier tanks were in use at least since 1866, once again in conjunction with Belpaire firebox locomotives built for the Belgian State and for la Société Générale d'Exploitatation (SGE), a private company grouping smaller secondary lines.[7]

In this design, used in earlier and smaller locomotives, the water is stored in a 'well' on the underside of the locomotive, generally between the locomotive's frames. This does not restrict access to the boiler, but space is limited there, and the design is therefore not suitable for locomotives that need a good usable range before refilling. The arrangement does, however, have the advantage of creating a low centre of gravity, creating greater stability on poorly laid or narrow gauge tracks. The first tank locomotive, Novelty, was a well tank.

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  A French well tank
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  A British well tank formerly used on suburban services in London

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A rear tank

In this design, the tank is placed behind the cab, usually over a supporting bogie. This removes the weight of the water from the driving wheels, giving the locomotive a constant tractive weight. The disadvantage is a reduction in water carrying capacity. A rear tank is an essential component of the American Forney type of locomotive, which is a 4-4-0 American-type with wheels reversed.

Wing tank locomotive Dougal on the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway

Wing tanks are side tanks that run the length of the smokebox, instead of the full length of the boiler. They were mainly used on narrow gauge industrial locomotives that could be frequently re-filled with water and where side or saddle tanks would restrict access to inside valve gear. The Kerry Tramway's locomotive Excelsior has been described, by various sources, as both a wing tank and an inverted saddle tank.

Joan on the Golden Valley Light Railway showing the inverted saddle tank around the smokebox

The inverted saddle tank was a variation of the Wing Tank where the two tanks were joined underneath the smokebox and supported it. This rare design was used for the same reasons as the wing tank but provided slightly greater water capacity. The Brill Tramway locomotive Wotton is believed to have had an inverted saddle tank. The inverted saddle tank was a speciality of W.G.Bagnall.[8]

The LSWR 415 class combined side tanks and a well tank

Large side tank engines might also have an additional rear tank (under the coal bunker), or a well tank (between the frames). This may have been to increase the water capacity, to equalise the weight distribution, or else improve the stability by lowering the centre of gravity.

A tank locomotive may also haul a tender behind it. This is usually found on narrow gauge railways where the small size of the locomotive restricts the space available for fuel and water. Where a tender was used it usually carried only fuel with the locomotive's water tanks remaining in place. The tender offered greater fuel capacity than a bunker on the locomotive and often the water capacity could be increased by converting redundant bunker space into a water tank.

In the Whyte notation for classification of locomotives (primarily by wheel arrangement), various suffixes are used to denote tank locomotives:

In the UIC notation which also classifies locomotives primarily by wheel arrangement, the suffix 't' is used to denote tank locomotives

South African Railways NGG16 class Garratt, preserved in Wales.

A Garratt type of locomotive is articulated in three parts. The boiler is mounted on the centre frame without wheels, and two sets of driving wheels (4 cylinders total) carrying fuel bunkers and water tanks are mounted on separate frames, one on each end of the boiler. Articulation is used so larger locomotives can go around curves which would otherwise restrict the size of rigid framed locomotives. One of the major advantages of the Garratt form of articulation is the maintenance of the locomotive's centre-of-gravity over or inside the track centre-line when rounding curves. Some other forms of articulation, notably the Mallet, tend to move the centre-of-gravity outside the centre-line on tight curves, leading to problems with traction and stability.

A crane tank preserved as a static exhibit at Bressingham.

A crane tank (CT) is a steam tank locomotive fitted with a crane for working in railway workshops or other industrial environments. The crane may be fitted at the front, centre or rear.

Hungarian Railways class 242

During the 1930s there was a trend for express passenger locomotives to be streamlined by enclosed bodyshells. Express locomotives were nearly all tender locomotives, but a few fast tank engines were also streamlined, for use on high-speed, but shorter, services where turn-around time was important and the tank engine's independence from turntables was useful. Examples included the German Class 61 and the Hungarian Class 242.

Small Bagnall contractor's loco, with their distinctive cylindrical firebox

The contractor's locomotive was a small tank locomotive specially adapted for use by civil engineering contractor firms engaged in the building of railways. The locomotives would be used for hauling men, equipment and building materials over temporary railway networks built at the worksite that were frequently re-laid or taken up and moved elsewhere as building work progressed. Contractor's locomotives were usually saddle or well tank types (see above) but required several adaptations to make them suitable for their task. They were built to be as light as possible so they could run over the lightly built temporary rails and had deeply flanged wheels so they did not de-rail on the tracks which were often very uneven. At the same time, they had to be very powerful with good traction as they would often have to haul trains of wagons up very steep gradients, such as the sides of railway embankments or spoil heaps. Many were designed so that large iron ballast blocks could be fitted to the frames when extra weight and traction was required, then removed when it was not. Most had sanding gear fitted to all wheels for maximum traction. Some method of keeping mud and dust from clogging the wheels and brake shoes was also required – this either took the form of scraper bars fitted to the leading edge of the wheels or wheel washer jets supplied from the water tank. To handle long trains of loose-coupled (and often un-sprung) wagons, contractor's locomotives usually had very effective steam-powered brakes. Most lacked a full cab, often only having a front 'spectacle plate'. If a cab was provided it was usually removable along with the chimney, and sometimes the dome, so that the locomotive could be loaded onto a flatbed wagon for transport to new locations by rail whilst remaining within the loading gauge.

Steam tram locomotive of Geldersche Tramwegen, Netherlands

Steam tram engines, which were built, or modified, to work on a street, or roadside, tramway were almost universally also tank engines. Tram engines had their wheels and motion enclosed to avoid accidents in traffic. They also had cow catchers to avoid road debris causing a derailment. Some tram engines were fitted with a roof and enclosed sides, giving them an appearance more like a goods wagon than a locomotive. To save weight, this side cladding could be of either metal or wood. A well-known fictional example of such a wooden-bodied tram is Toby the Tram Engine.

Vertical boiler locomotive "Taffy".

Railway locomotives with vertical boilers were also tank engines. This enabled the use of a smaller, cheaper-to-operate machine.

Polish-built side tank locomotive 7646 Northampton at its naming ceremony in 2001

Tank locomotives are popular with heritage railways for a number of reasons. They are usually cheaper to purchase than a tender locomotive due to their smaller size, and cheaper to transport to heritage lines which are isolated from the national rail network. Many locomotives were bought from former industrial railways; more tank engines were available from this source, resulting in lower prices.

Most heritage railways are short and usually do not have turntables at both ends of the line. A tank locomotive has good visibility for the driver in both directions. As the trains being hauled are usually light, the tank locomotive is more fuel efficient than a large tender locomotive. The cost of maintaining the engine is lower, and there is less wear and tear on the track.