OK, I give in. Where is it? Or are we seeing the first waterless steam locomotive - after all, there are fireless steam locos, so why not waterless? :-)
Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust
Yup, they forgot it. You have to add your own. Get a small piece of tubing and cut one to fit into the coal load on the tender. You'll have to fashion a hatch cover too. Or there might be something available from one of the detail manufacturers.
Thought they might have. No problem, it is getting converted to a wood burner, so there will be plenty of space to have a filler pipe and cover sticking up through the wood load. Only wood burners alloweed on the Switchback to Log Camp section on the Lumber Mountain RR :)
Steve
It is possible that the might not have "forgotten" the water hatch. The prototype may been designed to use a syphon to take water directly from a lineside pond or creek, saving the expense of building a traditional water tank. The Shays on the Cass Scenic RR syphon water from a lineside tank car body set in a stream bed when they have to climb all the way up to Bald Knob.
Hi Everyone,
When I got my Heisler I confirmed the lack of a water hatch on the rear bunker.
I don't really know what Bachmann's intentions were when they designed the Heisler, whether they forgot a water hatch, or left it off intentionally.
I believe it may have been left off intentionally, as I have looked at the photo of the original Heisler that this appears to have been modeled off (which I think I got from an earlier posting on the Bachmann On30 Forum), and it appears to have a siphon hose wrapped around the bunker.
As a result of seeing that, I don't intend to try to build a hatch into my model, which is what I thought I may need to do.
Happy Railroading.
Trevor.
I seem to remember reading an article in a mag. some years back which did state that the early Heislers did use the syphon tube method to replenish their water supply.