Steam Engines and Tenders.

[Sumpter250]

I think that round tube above the drawbar is the stoker in the picture.

The mechanical stoker had either a single cylinder, or two cylinder steam "motor" (engine), usually mounted on the loco frame, left side, beneath the cab. What shows in the picture, is the end of the auger, that pulls the coal from the tender, up into the firebox.
One of the differences between the C&O 2-6-6-6, and the Virginian 2-6-6-6, is that the C&O versions had the stoker motor mounted in the tender, left side/front. There is an access door on the side of the C&O tenders.
On the page of the locomotive stoker company, the two tubes, Vee'd off the auger, lifted the coal on both sides of the firebox door. Some stokers only had a single "riser".

[Puddlejumper]

Every pic I've seen of Santa Fe steam shows the Engine number on the tender. I've never seen a picture of a Santa Fe steamer with a tender whose number didn't match, or a picture of a tender for the Santa Fe that didn't have an engine number on it. The Santa Fe did change out tenders from time to time. Usually a particular locomotive might be re-assigned from long haul to helper service. When it went into helper service, depending on the length of the grade, a locomotive might receive a smaller tender than it would use in long haul service.

I would like to clarify my previous post: PRR tenders had a bronze plaque fixed to the rear of the tender stating the tender's number, which would match the loco the tender was originally built with. If the tender was reassigned to another locomotive the plaque was not changed. The number painted on the tender, if any, would have been corrected to match the loco it was assigned to but the tender number remained unchanged. Therefore it is possible to determine the lineage of a tender i.e. what loco it came from just by looking at the bronze plaque.

Here are a couple of interesting pix I found today related to the original subject.

First we have a view of a PRR J1 with the tender removed. The loco is awaiting scrap. Note the tender drawbar and safety bar have been torched off.
Also illustrates something else, PRR engines were painted DGLE (Green) not black!
http://www.columbusrailroads.com/photoga...yard-5.jpg

Next we have 2 photos of a Santa Fe 2-10-4 leased to PRR. It is being turned at Sandusky, OH and is too long for the turntable. Note the turntable extension.
http://www.columbusrailroads.com/photoga...2-CLMB.jpg
http://www.columbusrailroads.com/photoga...2-CLMB.jpg

Dave