Como water tanks.

[Robert McFarland]

"electricity,plumbing,structural modifications and more?"

[Robert McFarland]

"more electricity,plumbing structural modifications,and more?"Do you really want that?

[Jeff Ramsey]

No one said anything about building a water tank in Como on this thread. The inquire of this thread was to gather the best historical knowledge by the best C&S people for the purpose of developing engineering, working and architectural drawings of the Upper Como Tank for the benefit as Bob Schoppe called "the Como team" in the last Bogies and Loop if anyone has read that... You can't build something complex as a water tank or a turntable or even a steam locomotive without drawings and engineering. This is the main reason why the turntable is still not functional according to reliable sources and my personal factual observations in Como. "The Como Team" is really "The Como Project" and includes the Denver South Park & Pacific Historical Society, South Park Rail Society, Dr.Chuck Brantigan, Bill and Greg Kazel and Dave Tomkins. See http://southparkrail.com/the-como-project. Their website says different about a water tank in the future. I would agree if ever a water tank is replicated in Como it won't be for any few years soon as limited resources for the Como project have other first priorities.

[Jeff Ramsey]

Thank you Jim for that image I had not seen before. Looks like the base or pedestal uprights or post center lines for the "bents" are similar in the Upper Como and French Gulch tanks if not the same (as concurred by the ICC accountment), but the diagonal bracing is close but different as also the placement of uprights or posts on the outer bents.




I have wondered what they did to keep the tanks from freezing in the winter but if one looks closely around the spouts of C&S tanks we can see a fitting attached to piping that supplied steam from the locomotive steam dome via steam hose to various locations around the tank like the flap valve going from the tank to the spout and most likely to the inlet pipe inside the tub. This is apparent in the image at French Gulch.

[ComoDepot]

My favourite subject is how did they manage water in the winter. Has been a relatively warm winter, but 14F this morning and we can have periods where anything over 0F is a plus.

I understand if you have a tank fed by running water that should be enough, but there is none at this time of year, frozen.

Or they had a stove underneath, that makes more sense.

Jefferson for example can have frost down to 10ft below the ground, we hit frost behind the Depot in June and had to wait a month for it to melt out.

On the Durango and Silverton in winter they would use a weed burner to get rid of a blockage but they had a flowing stream to stop the tank freezing.

[savethecomodepot]

That would be up to the owner.  He's the one to make those decisions and any other changes to the roundhouse.  

[savethecomodepot]

Just making sure correct information is out there for the correct reasons and from the correct people.  

[SteveG]

I'm curious about how a tapered tank like the one in Como was built--did the builders have to taper each sheathing board slightly (which would seem to be a royal pain), or make up the difference by tapering every nth board (where hopefully n is a number much greater than 1) to make up the difference  in circumference at the top versus the bottom?
Don't think there's enough give in the wood to do this just by tightening the bands more at the top, but on the other hand, not sure what the point of tapering the tank in the first place was, either...

[Paul R.]

In Narrow Gauge Downunder there is an article on constructing a Hancock tank in S.Paul R.

[SteveG]

Not seeing that; searching the article index, closest thing I see is an article on the Blackhawk and Central City tanks, Do you happen to recall the issue?

[Paul R.]

Steve,
The latest issue,I am waving my own flag here. Paul R.

[SteveG]

Good on you!   Let me see if I can find a copy up here in the Seattle area, else I'll order one direct.

[Robert McFarland]

The old Caboose Hobbies used to have copies of Narrow Gauge Downunder.

[SteveG]

Yeah, always enjoyed visiting the old shop when I was able to justify a business trip to Denver. Anyone been to the new shop? The website for the new one seems to need a lot of development to match the old one.

[Chris Walker]

my Kiwi friend who went to live in Oz about 20 years ago but passed away several years ago from a heart attack used to send me copies of that magazine as well.

[Jeff Young]

SteveG wrote

Yeah, always enjoyed visiting the old shop when I was able to justify a business trip to Denver. Anyone been to the new shop? The website for the new one seems to need a lot of development to match the old one.

The new one is (at present) neither as large or as broad-ranged as the old one was.  It is better stocked than the old Caboose had been for the last several years.

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Keith Hayes]

Steve,  the tanks are barrels, and essentially constructed the same way. I believe both the C&S and D&RG tanks are constructed with a taper, the top diameter being smaller than the bottom. Each board would be tapered, and the idea is that when exposed to water on the inside, the wood cells will swell, creating a water-tight vessel held in compression by the band's. I suggest you search You Tube for a video and watch a Cooper make a wooden barrel or cask. Seems like a lot of work shaping all those boards, but back then, labor was cheap.

[SteveG]

Thanks, Keith!
I'm working on some laser cutting diagrams for the Como tanks and was planning on doing the sheathing as single sheet with the individual boards etched into the wrapper. A lot less trouble to taper them on the computer than in real life. :-)

[Jim Courtney]

Northern Pacific plans for wood water tank construction call for converting a long, wide plank into two tapered planks by sawing diagonally down the length of the plank.

Hopefully this was done at a mill; can you imagine sawing the planks by hand?

[Keith Hayes]

Here is the barrel wrap for a 50,000 gallon Crystal River tank next to my own scratch built Idaho Springs barrel.