Model Railroading > Can anyone who models water tanks Identify this RR?

 Folks who model water tanks often learn the different ways different railroad build their tanks or use certain brands.  Is there a way to identify which railroad used this tank?  Trains magazine used it for their first cover photo but did not give a location of the tank.  Just a mystery but nothing serious to ponder. This was used on Novermber 1940 issue and taken by Linn Westcott who covered much of Colorado in his travels. 

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I am too tanked to tell

That shouldn't keep you from spouting off about it.

Kalmbach librarians (used to be) great sources of information.

Stumbled onto this in Kinmundy, IL a few weeks ago enjoying the 2 lane roads over the interstate. Along the old IC.

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Water tanks came as kits. The tank boards had side edges which were planed at an angle so they formed a circle when assembled. The inside was left unpainted so the wood expanded once the boards were saturated. The steel bands which held the sides together against the water pressure were also kit parts.

The tank in the photo is a modern construction. B&B designed and built show less refined tanks of earlier construction.

Could be Rio Grande narrow gauge.  Or, lots of other roads.

This thread made me think that I had looked out a window in Manhattan years ago and saw a crew assembling a roof-top tank from a kit.

I did a quick Googe search and found this... Wooden Water Tanks and Water Cistern Tanks – Forest Cooperage (forestlumber.com)

So I'm assuming as fbe suggests there were/are many wooden tank kit builders.

Also looks like the Atlas kit except for the round roof support... so my WAG is that a tank like that might be anywhere.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/21 13:05 by RichM.

RichM Wrote:
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> Also looks like the Atlas kit except for the round
> roof support... so my WAG is that a tank like that
> might be anywhere.

I have a model that looks like the one at the top of the post.  It is a Alexander Scale Models one that was based on a CB&Q tank.
The second one looks like an Atlas tank to me.
The real tanks being an off the shelf item makes sense.  Why would a railroad waste engineering time on designing a water tank when they could just buy one that fits their needs from a vendor.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/21 13:52 by wingomann.

Thanks for sharing. Do you have that issue of Trains magazine? The railroad is not btw the covers?  Something missing in Model Railroading is a RR water tank with steel bents. (Bill Darnaby built one some years ago.) IMO,  they were more common than the ones with wooden bents. Once I get my resistance soldering down I hope to build one. I may just use the tank from a kit. Plastic angle is too thick. It should be built from brass.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com 
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/21 09:36 by wabash2800.

Yes, I have that first issue, and the preview issue preceeding, plus every issue since published to this day.  And there are many great narrow gauge stories in those early issues.  That magazine develope the narrow gauge modeling clan and for good resaon as curves could be sharper, and many narrow gauge had intersting location of scenry to model.
I was hoping someone might recoganize that tank by its bands and nature of construction and locate it, at least by railroad.
Trains did sell a digital copy of the entire collection, encluding the preview issue Vol 1 #0.  Now they need to digitally scan every word printed so items can be word searched.

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for sharing. Do you have that issue of
> Trains magazine? The railroad is not btw the
> covers?  Something missing in Model Railroading
> is a RR water tank with steel bents. (Bill Darnaby
> built one some years ago.) IMO,  they were more
> common than the ones with wooden bents. Once I get
> my resistance soldering down I hope to build one.
> I may just ruse the tank from a kit. Plastic angle
> is too thick. It should be built from brass.
>
> Victor A. Baird
> http://www.erstwhilepublications.com 
>

Is that the cover of volume 1, issue 1 of Trains Magazine?  If so, someone on TO should have the original issue, which presumably identifies the location of this water tank.

 I posted three hours prior to your post that I have the original issue, actually two ot them, one loose and one bound, and it did not locate the ownership or the place of that water tank.  That is why I made this post to try to learn its location in case someone may recognize that tank from this cover photo. I hope you don't try to run a railroad with a presumably or a AssUme.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/21 10:05 by PlyWoody.

Don't be too hard on him. Most railfans and model railroders don't read, they just look at the photos... I can tell you that from having folks ask me about things that are in my text when I provide an exhaustive index and all the answers are in the text. It's like talking on the phone with someone that can not hear. I just may start going to all photo books. They are much easier and take less time than doing research.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com


PlyWoody Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>  I posted three hours prior to your post that I
> have the original issue, actually two ot them, one
> loose and one bound, and it did not locate the
> ownership or the place of that water tank.  That
> is why I made this post to try to learn its
> location in case someone may recognize that tank
> from this cover photo. I hope you don't try to run
> a railroad with a presumably or a AssUme.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/21 21:12 by wabash2800.