Concrete Water Tank

Sun Feb 15 13:44:37 EST 2015

Absolutely, both the weight of concrete and water would be very significant 
 requiring a strongly build facility.

Jason Maxwell

In a message dated 2/14/2015 2:59:17 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

You are assuming that water filled the entire height of the  structure.  
The tank held only 200,000 gallons total (about 830 tons) and  that was in the 
upper portion of the structure.  Then there was the tank  floor (which is 
the ceiling to the room below) this varied in thickness from  about a foot in 
the center to more than three at the edges.  The actual  outside diameter 
was about 33.5 feet for the whole structure.  Water is  heavy which creates a 
lot of force on the walls.  And then there is the  footer that went at 
least six feet below ground and was nine and a half feet  wide at the base along 
with the concrete floor of the room.  The large  amount of steel items such 
as the large amount of rebar, (8, 12 and 14-inch)  piping with treatment 
equipment added more weight to the structure as  well.

The resulting reinforced concrete structure was very significant.  A  
general calculation would put the structure with the steel items was about  equal 
to the weight of the water it held.  My using the term “incidental”  may 
not have been the best word to use, I still contend that the filled water  
tank created a very significant facility bearing a lot of weight.

Bud Jeffries

From: _NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List_ 
(mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)   
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2015 10:43 PM
To: _nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
Subject: Re: Concrete Water Tank

Water has a density of ~62.3 lbs per cubic foot.  A round water tank  30 ft 
wide (inside diameter) and 60 ft tall would hold approximately 42400  cubic 
ft of water weighing over 2,600,000 lbs (1300 tons) if filled all the  way 
to the top.   Assuming a 1 ft thick wall, the tank would require  
approximately 5840 cubic ft of concrete weighing ~875,000 lbs.  The  concrete is 
heavy, but the water is heavy too.

Jason Maxwell

In a message dated 2/11/2015 5:58:58 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

The weight of water is incidental to the weight of the structure.   While 
water is 8.33 pounds per gallon, concrete is about 150 pounds per  cubic foot 
or about two tons per cubic yard.  I don’t know the number  of cubic yards 
of concrete in a water tank, but it is many.  The weight  of the structure 
is huge and the weight of water in relation is  incidental.  A water tank 
that has one-foot thick walls, sixty feet  tall and about 30 feet across has 
many cubic yards of concrete.  The  footers and foundation has to support a 
huge weight.

Bud Jeffries

From: _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2015 9:07 PM
To: _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
Subject: Re: Concrete Water Tank

Chief Engineer's drawing L-230, "Norfolk & Western  Railroad [sic] Standard 
200,000 and 250,000 Gallon Reinforced Concrete Water  Tank," 6/17/19 (NWHS 
No. HS-D00252) that I mentioned in a previous posting  shows a 9' - 6" wide 
circular footing with the bottom of the footing 6' - 6"  below base of rail. 
 A "Detail of Footing where Piles Are Used" on the  same drawing shows a 5' 
- 6" wide circular footing bearing on 50 piles (size  not specified), with 
the bottom of the footer likewise 6' - 6" below base of  rail.  A note under 
the latter detail reads, "If larger foundation is  required than shown on 
drawing, size to be satisfactory to the Engineer of  the N. and W. Railroad 
[sic]."

Gordon Hamilton

----- Original Message ----- 
From:  _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
To: _N&W Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2015  8:25 AM
Subject: Re: Concrete Water  Tank

This discussion can be carried to another level.

A 200,000 gal water tank holds about 800 tons of water (200,000   gals X 8 
lb gal = 800 tons.)  Spread that weight out over a dozen  footers, and each 
footer must support (only) 66 tons of water + some  additional load for the 
structure.

That is not a lot of weight for a footer to carry, but I am wondering  how 
footings were handled in places like the Dismal Swamp?  How  deeply were 
they carried down, and how does one excavate to bed rock in a  swamp...?

A 200,000 gal tank could fill twenty very old 10,000 gal tenders, ten  
modern 20,000 gal tenders, or 6.6  30,000 gal whopper tenders.   This makes me 
wonder about the re-fill rate.  Anyone know the hourly  capacity of the 
steam, distillate engine and electric motor pumps which  were, over the years, 
used to re-fill the N&W tanks?

Some railroads had a Superintendent of Water Service.  Who, on  the N&W, 
wore the King-Waterboy hat?  And did this function  (water supply) fall under 
the Motive Power or the MW Department?

-- abram burnett

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