Darn, went a bit too far, but a few light taps brought it back up. The plywood gage was made to correspond to one of the nicer bends on the mostly assembled tender truck. Some of the old bars had tight (close) bends, while others had rather gentle bends that were not close to the pedestals. We desired tight bends, in order for the bent bar to form a positive stop/brace for the bottom ends of the rather brittle cast-iron journal box pedestal castings. We have seen several fractured pedestal castings, and wide bends may have contributed to their failure(to say nothing about the choice of material!).

Photo by Bill Liebman