Three Mile / Birdseye Water Tank

[Jim Courtney]

Great drawing, Jeff.

So you think that the Shawnee tank had cast iron columns, like Birdseye??

I've never seen a photo of Shawnee tank -- if you have one, could you post it??

[Jeff Ramsey]

A very brief motion picture shot can be seen of the Shawnee tank in "Old Colorado & Southern and Engine Number 9" by Helen Tatum and be purchased from the Park County Historical Society.

[Jim Courtney]

Oooops . . .

I have that film, didn't notice Shawnee tank.
Will have to watch it again.

Thanks!

[Keith Hayes]

Chris the column based came in last week. As per usual I acted from memory and created a profile based upon what I  thought it should look like rather than consult the photo.

I like mine better that those at Three Mile, which are rather squatty to my eye. Next up I need to procure so O scale turnbuckle from which to make some clevises for the tie rods.

For comparison here is a photo of the Kokomo tank (a Banta Baker's Tank).

I have been struggling with the water stains and getting the right color on the barrel. Ot still needs some work,  but this is progress. While I had the airbrush out, Auto Box 8242 got some weathering.

[Bill Uffelman]

Looks good to me so far.

Bill Uffelman

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[Keith Hayes]

Okay--this is neat stuff!

You all know I have been purring away on a couple water tank models. One is a scratch build of the Three Mile Tank and the second is a Banta Baker Tanks I plan to use at Kokomo.

I have been working on the gallows. I had the shiv parts on my bench long enough that one disappeared,  so I had to recreate it the old fashioned way turning brass rod in my drill to create a pulley and solder it to a sleeve. Now I am working on the chains and counterweights for the spouts.

This left the valve rope. I could dig through the wife's mending kit for some thread, but I thought,  what the heck? Let's see what our buddies in ship modeling have in the way of rigging?

Well...I found www.syrenmodelcompany.com and a bunch of woven rigging rope in three colors. (light tan, dark tan and brown or tarred)

I ordered the four smallest sizes and IT IS AWESOME! Each bag has 20 feet for $5.50.  The smallest should work great for my valve lines and I am going to have to order some thicker stuff  for the work cars.

Check out the pics of the Boreas wrecks and you will see some large rope lines and hawsers that this rope would be perfect to model. Got one of those Leadville Shops CC work cars? You gotta get some of this rope to complete your model. I will have to make some loops of rope for the freight depot. This will be great for flat car loads!

Neat, neat stuff!

[Keith Hayes]

Here is the finished product.

I started this project over 20 years ago, inspired by a Harry Brunk article. I never could have imagined the journey this little structure would take me on.

[Chris Walker]

[Keith Hayes]

The spout on the Birdseye tank was snagged by a passing train. I had never been happy with the way the spout hung on the gallows, so this was a good opportunity to make a fix. It was fiddley work, but it is done.

This is one of the models I plan to use for the NMRA structures AP, as the only commercial part is the spout