Model Railroading > Scratchbuilt water tower

This water tower started with a discarded freon tank and a funnel.

I tried to tack weld the funnel to the bottle but the funnel was too thin and
the wire burned right through the metal. I ended up gluing the funnel to the
bottle.

I used a clay pots as the guides for the plasma cutter to cut the
circular walkway platform, cut and tack welded 1/4" rod for the handrail posts,
glued 3/16" steel cable for the steel cable around the posts,
welded 1" angle iron for the main legs and 1/2" angle for the bracing.

Last parts were an old piece of 1" EMT conduit for the center pipe
and 1/4" rod for center bracing, add aluminum paint, and off the the
track she went, sent inside the wye. Once the location is named, we
will affix lettering to the tank sides.

The often asked question is : is it functional? Answer is no, 7 ft above ground does
not allow for much head pressure and capacity is less than one tender tank, plus the most important
part is that the A/C guy we got the tanks from was required to punch a hole in the bottle so they
could not be re-used for gas.

It kind of looks like a rocket ship for Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. The next one I build will
have the legs more perpendicular to the ground rather than fanned out at an angle. It was a
fun project nonetheless.

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We pulled a second grade class that came out to the track yesterday.

It was rather chilly and the teachers weren't that into it, but the kids sure were.

The kids kept yelling "FASTER" ! but the operators would have none of that. Its probably
good that I wasn't at the controls yesterday (i tend to throttle up a bit).

After the ride was over, and just before they left, they sang We Wish You A Merry Christmas to us.

This is in East Texas.

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WWM, how do you handle the liability? Our insurance carrier would never allow us to have people, other than family, sit INSIDE a car.

I never had a teacher that looked like that!

Looks like a rocket ship ready for launch!

Nice work

Bruce

santafedan Wrote:
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> WWM, how do you handle the liability? Our
> insurance carrier would never allow us to have
> people, other than family, sit INSIDE a car.


It's a private track and track owner makes visitors sign release form drawn up by his attorney.

Obviously the kids don't sign but teachers did.

These were very well behaved kids, of good breeding stock.

I didn't know the STLSW ever had a cab forward like the 669! :)