<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">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. <div><br></div><div>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:</div><div><a href="https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=13303">https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=13303</a></div><div><br></div><div>The “why” question is still an open one. Possibly as simple as reducing costs, and maybe soot wasn’t an issue. </div><div><br></div><div>Matt Goodman</div><div>Columbus, Ohio, US</div><div><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On May 23, 2025, at 7:12 PM, Matt Goodman <mgoodman312@icloud.com> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Hey everyone, <div><br></div><div>This past couple weeks I’ve been exploring the ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation) Aerial Image Archive (here: <a href="https://gis3.dot.state.oh.us/ODOTAerialArchive/">https://gis3.dot.state.oh.us/ODOTAerialArchive/</a>).</div><div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>The nearest location with a similar set up is Portsmouth, and it too shows open tops on the treated tanks. </div><div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>Does anyone have any comments on why this was done? Rain water harvesting? Maybe soot / cinder doesn’t really cause problems?</div><div><br></div><div>Attached are Dorney (top -1959) and Portsmouth (bottom - 1954)</div><div><br></div><div><span id="cid:9119AAC9-E626-4CB0-B24D-77FBF8E6B18E"><PastedGraphic-3.png></span></div><div><br></div><div><span id="cid:987A722B-29A4-4CE6-9486-67369219211F"><PastedGraphic-1.png></span></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>