Topping-up steam locos

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Where a location has a water column/crane, does there have to be an adjacent water tower to feed said column? I know the GW had their own design, combining the two functions, but elsewhere, if I include a water column on the layout, do I need a water tower too?

[LMS2968]

Yes, but it could be some distance away. The tank had to be higher than the column to give a pressure head but also to give a constant flow. The tank would hold more than a few tenders but had time to replenish between uses. At Bridgnorth the tank is to the west of the station set into the bank below the high level car park. I don't think you can see it from the station.

[bécasse]

There has to be a water tank somewhere gravity feeding the water column(s) (and quite often the WCs and taps on any adjacent station). The tank obviously has to be on railway property and that will usually be true of the water pipes too, but its position will depend on where water can be readily obtained (typically pumped up from a bore hole/well, river or canal) so it certainly doesn't have to be adjacent to the tracks. It obviously needs to be located so that the outlet from the tank is physically higher than the top of the water column(s).

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Thanks; thought as much. Now to find a suitable small ex-MR example.. 

[Michael Hodgson]

15 minutes ago, bécasse said:

The tank obviously has to be on railway property and that will usually be true of the water pipes too, but its position will depend on where water can be readily obtained (typically pumped up from a bore hole/well, river or canal)

Is it OK for railways to filch water out of a canal? 

Perhaps not an issue if the canal company was taken over by the railway.

[bécasse]

2 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Is it OK for railways to filch water out of a canal? 

Perhaps not an issue if the canal company was taken over by the railway.

It wouldn't have been 'filched' out of a canal, either the canal company would have been taken into railway ownership (as suggested) or the canal company would have been paid. There were probably examples of water being taken by one railway company from a canal owned by another, again payment would have been made.

[Grovenor]

The GC had a pumping station and tank just east of Guide Bridge taking water from the Peak Forest canal where the line crossed it. Beautifully kept pump etc when I visited during my railway training in 1959/60.

[Martino]

I recall a tale told in the Goods Shed at Taplow, when a Great Western Society base in ‘66, that when the water cranes were removed from Maidenhead station someone flushed the toilet on one of the platforms and it kept flushing for two weeks or until the tank emptied.

 

Almost certainly a ‘bar tale’ but the thought still makes me smile. ;-)

Edited September 4, 2023 by Martino
Spelling. I can’t spell.

[Wickham Green too]

The Talyllyn and the Bodmin & Wadebridge famously had watering points direct from streams at a higher level - though whether you'd count those as water columns is debateable.

[Stoke West]

2 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Thanks; thought as much. Now to find a suitable small ex-MR example.. 

Try Charfield station

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Just now, Stoke West said:

Try Charfield station

Great minds and all that. Funny you should mention that one as I do have a plan for it and was actively looking at that as a possibility, especially as it had a brick base that would fit in with my other buildings.

About 40 years ago I made a model of the tower at Westhouses, but that would've been much too large...

[Stoke West]

1 hour ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Great minds and all that. Funny you should mention that one as I do have a plan for it and was actively looking at that as a possibility, especially as it had a brick base that would fit in with my other buildings.

About 40 years ago I made a model of the tower at Westhouses, but that would've been much too large...

Ashchurch still retains its tower 

[roythebus1]

There's one at East Ham on the District Line. And another at Barking sidings!

[WillCav]

One thing to watch for is that the usage of the water column might trigger a small water tank closer to where the water need is.

 

I'm researching Cheltenham Spa Malvern Road (GWR).  There was a single column at each end of the station fed from the large water tank over the coaling stage.

 

The east end water supply was later upgraded with a small water tank and column.

 

Will

[The Johnster]

Cardiff Central still has it's water header tank, a concrete structure dating from the station's rebuilding in the late 20s.  At one time it became a bit of a neglected eyesore until daffodils were painted on it, and as it is prominently visible from the long straight approach to the ctiy centre along Ninian Park Road and Tudor Street, it became quite well-known to commuters using that approach.  I believe the steam water column supply pipes are still there, buried under the platform paving.

[JimC]

8 hours ago, bécasse said:

the canal company would have been paid. 

GWR locomotive committee minutes are full of agreements being made about sourcing water. Canals, streams, reservoirs, bore holes, landowners, water boards, other companies, they are there in enormous variety. It was clearly a significant preoccupation at board level. 

[stewartingram]

Cambridge station/locoshed was (I'm told) fed by water from Chesterton Junction - the present Cambridge North station site. That must be at least a couple of miles away.

[The Johnster]

10 hours ago, JimC said:

GWR locomotive committee minutes are full of agreements being made about sourcing water. Canals, streams, reservoirs, bore holes, landowners, water boards, other companies, they are there in enormous variety. It was clearly a significant preoccupation at board level. 

It is the reason that Swindon was chosen as the locomotive changeover point on the original Bristol line; despite being surrounded on all sides by chalk and limestone aquifers, Swindon water is soft and not acidic, ideal for use in boilers.  

[KeithHC]

18 hours ago, Stoke West said:

Try Charfield station

The water tower Is it a Midland design or a Brunel design as the rest of the station was(is).

 

Keith

Edited September 5, 2023 by KeithHC
Correction

[Wickham Green too]

Ah - but there wasn't a lot of water at Swindon so they had to nick most of it from Kemble ! https://sites.google.com/view/gloucestershirerailwaymemories/home/kemble/how-swindon-got-its-water-from-kemble

[ROY@34F]

At Grantham the local water is very hard , and so there was a water softening plant in the loco , and there was a large tank at the end of the old coaling stage , on top of the stores/ mess rooms which I'm sure fed all the water columns in the station and goods yards , as well as the loco . If we topped up with water up the Stainby branch from Highdyke , we had to put some tablets in the tender to soften the local water supply . 

       I'm sure Grantham wasn't the only depot with a water softener , but I just can't think of others at the moment . But it's long time ago .

Regards , Roy .

Edited September 5, 2023 by ROY@34F
spelling

[Artless Bodger]

21 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Is it OK for railways to filch water out of a canal? 

Perhaps not an issue if the canal company was taken over by the railway.

The GWR had bought the Stratford on Avon canal, one of the aqueducts had a pipe allowing locomotives passing under it to take water.

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbj790.htm

 

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbj764.htm

Edited September 5, 2023 by Artless Bodger
Added link

[pH]

1 hour ago, Artless Bodger said:

The GWR had bought the Stratford on Avon canal, one of the aqueducts had a pipe allowing locomotives passing under it to take water.

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbj764.htm

Why do I feel that picture has the potential to be the starting point of a Terry Gilliam cartoon?

Edited September 5, 2023 by pH

[The Johnster]

Having seen the plug pulled on the Brecon & Monmouthshire Canal at Llangynidr,  I can confirm that there is a comedic element at play in such proceedings.  Impressive, too.  

 

 

 

[Stoke West]

3 hours ago, KeithHC said:

The water tower Is it a Midland design or a Brunel design as the rest of the station was(is).

 

Keith

Charfield and Ashchurch are very similar as is the one at Settle