Tender drive

A tender drive is a drive construction for models of tender locomotives in which the engine is not housed in the locomotive but in the tender .

In order to avoid optical defects that would have arisen when installing a motor in the locomotive, such as bulges in the area of ​​the standing boiler , a driver's cab completely filled with the motor or visible gears, some model railroad manufacturers switched to the motor in the 1960s To install the tender. One of the first models to be delivered with a tender drive as standard was the H0 model of the 55 series from Fleischmann in the mid-1960s. Manufacturers who use or have used tender drives include Fleischmann, Gützold , Jouef , Liliput , Piko , Roco , Trix and Weinert Modellbau. The Lego toy train also used the tender drive on some models.

Tender drives are partly controversial, although in most cases the same good results in terms of smoothness and tractive power are achieved as with motors built into the locomotive body. The manufacturers Fleischmann and Roco in particular have technically perfected the concept of the tender drives. Many Märklinists in particular categorically reject tender drives to this day, as Märklin deliberately adheres to the assembly of the motor in the locomotive.

A special variant that Roco builds, however, is to accommodate the engine in the tender and to bring the drive force not only to the tender wheels, but also to the front of the locomotive with a cardan shaft and to drive the locomotive's drive wheels. However, this construction principle cannot be described as a pure tender drive.

On the Lehmann-Groß-Bahn , a second motor is often installed in the tender in order to achieve enough tractive power for the heavy trains that often occur on this scale.