Finney7
Between 1884 and 1906 the GWR built 397 tenders with a water capacity of 3000 gallons, all to basically the same design. They had a coal capacity of 5 tons, a wheelbase of 15 feet, and weighed 36T 15cwt full and 17T 9cwt empty. They were built under 27 lots.
These tenders were used with singles, 2-4-0's, all classes of double framed 4-4-0's, 2301 class, Aberdares, County 4-4-0's, 28XX class and 2251 class. The first withdrawals took place in 1927 and the only survivor is No. 1506 with engine No. 3440 "City of Truro".
There were many modifications made to the basic design during the 22 years over which the tenders were in production and many more subsequent changes as they were rebuilt.
The earliest tenders had coal rails and no water scoop. The water filler was a cylindrical casing and the sandboxes were mounted on the footplate in front of the tank. They also had identical toolboxes on each side and some were fitted with an overflow pipe and fountain for use with engines equipped with crosshead driven feed pumps. Russell p43, fig 108 shows a later tender fitted with a water scoop and a combined filler/scoop fountain. The front of the scoop was subsequently fitted with a plate presumably to prevent foreign bodies entering. The operating mechanism for the drip trap/drain on the steam heating pipe can be clearly seen. This was not a permanent feature, later photographs do not show it. These early tenders also have narrow footplates, a 'drop' in the flare on the tank sides at the front, front steps with a curve on the leading edge and hornguide ties of the rod type. From Lot A45 the flare on the tank sides was carried through to the front (Russell p171, fig 494), the coal rails extended forward and the footplate widened at the front. These tenders were built for the new 4-4-0's and consequently had a raised footplate at the front. Shortly afterwards steps with a straight leading edge and strip type hornguide ties (Russell p175, fig 505) were introduced.
From Lot A54 coal plates replaced the coal rails and the last lots had the wide footplate throughout and a separate water pickup dome and filler. Subsequently all were rebuilt with coal plates, a different pattern toolbox on the left hand side and fire iron trays and were fitted with water level gauges. Most appear to have had the sandboxes removed and replaced with a single sandbox on the left-hand side at the front of the coal space.
All of these variations are accommodated in the kit and before starting construction we urge you to identify from photographs, all the features your model will have. Following a page on building the chassis, the instructions have a page to give guidance on the construction of a narrow footplate body and then a page on constructing the wide footplate body. There then follow 5 different configurations of detail; you may have to pull information from these different pages to build your selected tender.
Wheels. 4' 1½" diameter, 12 spoke, axle with 2 mm diameter extensions (3) Slater’s Ref 7849MF
To obtain a pdf copy of the instructions please click on the links below; the pdf will open in a new window. Unfortunately the A4 and A3 pages have to be in different files.