Soo Line W165

Water Car

Water car W165 is an old steam locomotive tender. The conversion to water car involved little more than bolting a coupler (no draft gear) on in front of the drawbar pocket. W165 was built by the Schenectady. NY works of the American Locomotive Company in 1928, to go with a new locomotive, number 4016. It carried 10,000 gallons of water, 17 1/2 tons of coal, and was 33 feet long over the pulling faces.

Soo Line 4016 was a class N-20 "Mountain"-type 4-8-2, designed for the Soo Lines hottest and most important passenger trains. This tender stayed with it through most of the 1940's though by 1954 it had been replaced by a larger one.

Some photos of 4016 can be found in back issues of "The SOO" - the official publication of the Soo Line Historical and Technical Society:

• Vol 20, #4, p18: Photo of 4016 in the late 1940's, with a tender that appears to be W165, heading up the Mountaineer.
• Vol 19, #1, p34: Photo of 4016 in 1954, with a larger tender, double-heading a troup train towards Chicago.
• Vol 16, #3, p45: Photo of 4016 in January 1955, part of a funeral train of nine steam locomotives being hauled from North Fond Du Lac to Chicago to be scrapped.

Sources:

1. E-mail from Nick Modders, relaying data from Stu Nelson, dated 02/06/2000.