Steel Water Tank Question

[NW Mailing List]

Mornin' Ken — Thanks for the pics. Hope you've been well.

Cheers -

Carl Barna
Emmaus, PA
________________________________
From: NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org> on behalf of NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2025 8:37 PM
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: Steel Water Tank Question

Carl, here are some color wooden tank pics, to give some idea of the color. Be aware these are probably not perfect renditions.
Mike Rector
[image.png]
[image.png]

[image.png]

this one is pretty dark with soot and/or weathered wood and lack of stain.
[image.png]


On Tue, May 27, 2025 at 7:11 PM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>> wrote:
Steel tanks were black. Wooden tanks were a reddish-brown, like structure trim of the era.

Best
Ken Miller

> On May 27, 2025, at 11:46 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>> wrote:
>
> What color did the NW paint their wooden and steel water tanks?
>
> Carl Barna
> Emmaus, PAFrom: NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org>> on behalf of NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>>
> Sent: Monday, May 26, 2025 10:10 PM
> To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>>
> Subject: Re: Steel Water Tank Question
>  The water tower in Clare Yards in Cincinnati was an open top. I have photo rom above, so don't forget to model the dead birds floating on top.
> Stephen Rineair
>
> From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>>
> To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>>
> Cc: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>>
> Sent: Monday, May 26, 2025 7:20:46 PM
> Subject: Re: Steel Water Tank Question
>
> As a follow up, an answer to my question was hinted at in the instructions to a water tank kit produced by Tichy. A short paragraph stated that some railroads “in temperate climates” didn’t install tops to their tanks. So that at least confirmed that petticoat junction-style open top steel tanks were a real thing.
> Today I also found the standard plans for the tanks in question in my original email, which confirmed the open top for the specific tanks I asked about:
> https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=13303
>
> The “why” question is still an open one. Possibly as simple as reducing costs, and maybe soot wasn’t an issue.
>
> Matt Goodman
> Columbus, Ohio, US
>
> On May 23, 2025, at 7:12 PM, Matt Goodman <mgoodman312 at icloud.com<mailto:mgoodman312 at icloud.com>> wrote:
>
> Hey everyone,
> This past couple weeks I’ve been exploring the ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation) Aerial Image Archive (here: https://gis3.dot.state.oh.us/ODOTAerialArchive/).
>
> The first place I looked was the Dorney coaling station south of Columbus. The high water tank (the “raw” or untreated water) was open on top (as expected) but I was surprised to see that the two low 200K treated / storage tanks also appeared to be open. That surprised me, so I started down to check other locations.
>
> The nearest location with a similar set up is Portsmouth, and it too shows open tops on the treated tanks.
>
> To me this is unintuitive since the treated water would be exposed to soot - especially in the Portsmouth yard - which would then make its way through the locomotive appliances, etc.
>
> Does anyone have any comments on why this was done? Rain water harvesting? Maybe soot / cinder doesn’t really cause problems?
>
> Attached are Dorney (top -1959) and Portsmouth (bottom - 1954)
>
> <PastedGraphic-3.png>
>
> <PastedGraphic-1.png>
>
>
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