Charles A. Eggie, a retired Pennsylvania Railroad plumber foreman assigned to the Wilmore pans, tells a tragic story:

Even through the windows closed against the bitter night, a scream was heard in the house alongside the track pans. The occupant, a railroad man, knew exactly what it meant, and he grabbed for the phone to have the eastbound freight flagged down at the next tower. There, the body of a tramp was found frozen against the back end of the tender. Hitching a ride “in the blind” hanging on the back of the tender, the tank filled from the trough, and overflowed down the back of the tender, soaking the man in water that rapidly turned to ice. He screamed but dared not let go, and died.

Winter was a difficult time for scooping water, both on the engine and on the ground. When approaching the pans in very cold weather, it was not uncommon for firemen to make the dangerous climb over the coal pile to look back for any poor soul hiding in the blind, but under catenary, this climb typically was not attempted for fear of electrocution.

At first there was considerable complaint that the troughs were often not more than two-thirds full.... The pumpmen were instructed to inspect the troughs five minutes before
schedule time of trains.... It has been suggested that a float valve might be installed to allow the troughs to be filled automatically, but as the pumpmen were required to patrol the trough regularly. . .it is not considered that this would be any advantage, as it might make the pumpmen careless.   (E. E. Russell Tratman, Railway Track and Track Work; McGraw-Hill, New York, 1909.)

Track pans were not standard catalog items; hence, there were many variations in their construction. The length of pans grew over the decades, with early pans ranging up to 1200 feet. By the 1940s, the typical length was between 1500 and 2500 feet. The PRR pans averaged 1500 feet. The longest pans were also on the PRR: 2685 feet at Wilmore, PA. Length depended in part on the characteristics of typical trains, whether locomotives were double-headed, and the effect of topography on water consumption. Quite typically, several tracks had pans in parallel operation. Pans were constructed on flat terrain and preferably not on curves. With variations, they averaged from 30 to 45 miles apart.

Except for some very early wooden construction, and some of bolted cast iron, most pans were constructed of steel—first riveted plates and later formed steel sections welded together. They were usually fastened by spikes applied to flanges welded on the sides of the pan. The spikes were applied so as to permit expansion and contraction. Steel track pans were usually between 3/16 in. and 3/8 in. thick, often with a lip of some four inches rolled over from the top. Pan depth was between six and eight inches; width varied between 19 and 29 inches.

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In order for the top of the pan to present the required one inch of clearance below the top of the rails, the standard eight-inch ties were sometimes dapped out by up to 2-1/4 inches, creating a recess into which the pan would fit. (In England and France, the top of the trough was higher than the railhead, requiring a modified scooping operation.)

Track pans were ramped with thicker steel on both sides of each end in order to present a gradual rise that would protect the pan from violent collision with a scoop that had either been lowered prematurely or raised too late. This incline guided the scoop into its “up” position, from which it could descend again if not properly secured. In the early days before the use of air- operated controls, firemen were known to simply let the pan ramp push the extended scoop back up rather than risk a broken bone caused by the control rod “bucking” back on them. This practice, of course, wasted water and was discouraged. Some firemen pulled the rod with a rope. In the 1930s, the English devised an automatic scoop-raising mechanism that employed a float in the tender tank, but this device was not used in the United States.

Water was fed to the pans from a nearby pumphouse; automatic flow controls employing floats were widely used in this country. When freight trains were being pushed from the rear, it was important to refill the pan as rapidly as possible after the lead engine(s) had taken on water. Four minutes were usually required to refill standard track pans.

Tender on Pusher Locomotive Overflowing

Pan maintenance was especially difficult in winter, requiring that attendants be on duty around the clock. Even flowing water could freeze in the pans in extremely cold weather, and often spray coated the surrounding ground and structures with ice. Accordingly, trackside boilers were installed, often salvaged from old locomotives, to shoot live steam into the pans at intervals. Some lines heated and recirculated the water, and in many instances, steam or hot water lines were installed parallel to each track to melt away spray ice. These pipes often continued some distance beyond the end of the pan because of the icing mist that often followed a high-speed water pickup. Crews of workers were often dispatched to chip away the ice and keep the pans and drains clear, a difficult—and dangerous—job. In some cases, the scoops on the tenders were sprayed with steam to keep the mechanism from freezing.

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