Re: Speculation on the Gilpin Tramway at the Black Hawk Roundhouse.

Posted by Dave Eggleston on Feb 05, 2023; 8:03pm
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Speculation-on-the-Gilpin-Tramway-at-the-Black-Hawk-Roundhouse-tp18403p18412.html

Chris Walker wrote

p.s. Dave,

great point raising the Watercar fill.  While I doubt the Mystery structure would have solely built for that purpose alone, filling the #300 would at 2200 gals, depleted any cistern sited in the roofspace(I would be thinking), taking water at a proper lineside W.T. would be most time efficient as opposed to a(maybe) hose.  As for the tank freezing concern: beyond my life experiences.

The freezing issues related to an ore-bin-style structure of that size still nags me. Begs the out-on-a-limb thought of running a steam line from the warming house up to the tank for defrosting. Using steam off the tiny Shays to defrost might've been slower or not up to the task.

And why build a formal cylindrical water tank in Central City but not by the enginehouse? Lots of reasons maybe: timing, who built it, use.

I have no idea how quickly a tiny 2-truck Shay depleted its tank running from the engine house to lower Blackhawk and back, switching that distance. That is also a consideration I can't answer.

The fire pump and hose are very valid sources for engine water. The CCRR and later 3' gauge lines used city water supplies in Central City and also at Blackhawk at different times. At one period the 3' took water at the Polar Star. There was a water supply to the GT warming house boiler that was just a few hundred feet away. I'm also going to toss out the not impossible idea that the hose was fed out the GT enginehouse side barn door to an engine on the trestle--at least in the early years. I have seen other non-logical (to us) but economical (to them) solutions to problems on 19th century railroads.