After studying this I’ve come around to siding with the above suggestions that these were tanks intended to hold Bunker-C fuel oil, the purpose being to heat the oil to a usable consistency. Bunker-C at ambient temps, even in the tropics has a consistency similar to paraffin wax just before it melts to liquid. It’s unusable in that state for locomotives until heated to it’s full viscosity point. Industry standard shook out to be steam heating the oil tank. If FES was experimenting with oil firing and wanted to do it in-house, these tanks might have been an experiment in oil conversions using shop materials at lowest cost. If so, it must have proven unsatisfactory and they eventually went with the industry standard method.
The interesting thing about a conversion such as this is that with no oil in the tender they had an empty open fuel bunker they could still use and could still fire with bagasse and local wood where and when available, and oil the rest of the time.
As a new bit of info- I just saw newly displayed FES color photos with closeup truck details. The most interesting was of a first class coach from the British 1895 order that had split a switch and left the rear truck behind. The closeup photo of the truck gives me something to match current passenger truck options with on the models I’m building, but the real gem is that no matter which brand or pattern I choose, I’ll have to add one major detail to be accurate. The truck I’m looking at was sporting roller bearings in the color photo. Somewhere between probably 1964 and 1974, the FES steel frame wood body coaches had roller bearings installed.
<> I posted a bit too soon. Upon closer study, this may not have been a derailment. A closer look at what is going on reveals no track or switch damage nor signs of the car having been on the ground, the rear axle of the truck is removed iand the car end is jacked up. This may be a photo of the roller bearings being installed.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2024 12:23PM by Wayne Sanderson.
