RMweb Gold TomE Posted May 27, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 27, 2012 Hi all. I'm about to start building the water tower for my Ropley project, but whilst gathering photos together I realised that I don't have any that show whether the tower has a top, or if it is open to the elements. I'd always assumed that it was open and there looks to be a ladder down into the tank, but can anyone confirm if this type of tower would be open, or if they all had tops? Here's the tower being modelled: Cheers, Tom. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 It all depends on the design. Some were roofed and some weren't. Obviously the water used in steam loco's was treated, so you wouldn't really want debris in it. Then again, rainwater could be captured if there was no roof on the tank. Many 'Braithwaite' tanks of the more modern bolted pressed panel designs have roofs, but some of the older Victorian cast iron designs don't. Certainly municipal water towers were built with roofs to stop pollution from bird droppings etc, and many had gutters piped into the water tank to capture rain water off the roof. This practice was soon stopped when drinking rain water became unacceptable. Bird droppings in the tank are not an issue if the only thing using the water is a steam loco, however. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMJ Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 A year or so ago the rain water farmed off the roof of a building was tested chemically to see how good it was for use in steam loco boilers. It was proved that it is as pure as it gets and very little chemical manipulation would be needed. NRM @ Shildon farms water from the roof for use in boilers. Sorry to go off topic but as you can see rain water is acceptable for use in the boiler. Perhaps google maps could give you good roof top views of existing ones. I have just had a look at Keighley and it's one of the rectangular sectional ones and is open to the elements. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 A similar one that used to be in Poole yard was open, in fact during very hot spells loco crews were known to climb up, and cool off inside. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TomE Posted May 27, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 27, 2012 Perhaps google maps could give you good roof top views of existing ones. Alas the google maps imagery for the area is rather low resolution (it must have been done some time ago) and its difficult to draw any conclusion from it. Thanks for the responses so far! Tom. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Looking at the picture of the water tower at Ropley, its looks like the top is open. Its the classic round construction made from rolled steel plates riveted together. There are rows of rivets where the plates join at the sides and bottom, but also there are rivets round the top. My guess would be that the top of the tower is open and there is a reinforcing band riveted round the top to hold the thing together. It looks like there is an access ladder sticking out from inside the tank aswell. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Here's Midland water tower based on that at Barnoldswick: There's a very nice set of drawings of a Parachute type tank (LYR) in Modeller's Back Track Vol 2 No. 6 from March 1993 by R.C Lane. From the text, it seems that in the early days tanks were open, sometimes with planks on the top. After the grouping, tanks began to be covered. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PhilH Posted May 27, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 27, 2012 The one at Ropley is open topped. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TomE Posted May 27, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 27, 2012 The one at Ropley is open topped. Thanks Phil for the confirmation! Tom. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
clecklewyke Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Did you see that the extended version of BBC's Have I Got News for you tonight featured the British Water Tower Appreciation Society as its guest publication? I'm sure they could help. See this link- http://bwtas.blogspo...ws-for-you.html Nice to see a more anoraky group than us! I speak as one who is very concerned about whether water tanks on woolen mills and in LNWR MPDs were covered or not. (Edited 28/5/12 to remove a couple of typos) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Did you see that the extended version of BBC's Have I Got News for you tonight featured the British Water Tower Appreciation Tower Society as its gust publication? I'm sure they could help. See this link- http://bwtas.blogspo...ws-for-you.html Nice to see a more anoraky group than us! I speak as one who is very concerned about whether water tanks on woolen mills and in LNWR MPDs were covered or not. I'm a member of BWTAS, I'll have you know! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PhilH Posted May 28, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 28, 2012 I'm a member of BWTAS, I'll have you know! That explains a lot...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 That explains a lot...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 5944 Posted May 28, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 28, 2012 Larger Midland water tanks were open to the elements, meaning if you buy a derelict one, you can put a conservatory in there! http://settlestationwatertower.blogspot.co.uk/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theakerr Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 I am in the process of building a water tower based on the one at Grimsby (in about 1955). It is on an enclosed brick base that, one assumes, encloses pumps and other paraphernalia and appears to be open topped - no problem. However, I am wondering about a water height gauge. I cannot see one on two of the walls, including the wall facing the station which is where I would expect to see one. I cannot get a picture of the back and only limited ones that face the Garden Street signal box. A google search, somewhat to my surprise shows numerous water towers that appear not to have had an external gauge. So did they use the very simple overflow pipe (that does appear in several pictures? Would anyone know if Grimsby did have an external gauge and then if not how did they rely on getting a full tank? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steves17 Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 I'm planning out a shed/yard layout and a station one back to back ( they would be parallel along the path of the mainline if space allowed ) but till now i've not really considered water towers in my mostly finalised mock plan and I don't know much about them beyond the basics. In one of the illustrations i'm using as reference for my fictional recreation there is a water stand with a smallish circular tank suspended above it ( quite similar to the one at the top of this page ). My question is should there be a large rectangular water tower somewhere near by to top up said small one ( it serves a 3 strong engine shed ) and the water crane at the station platform? The one at the station is not shown and while not my preference I could change this so its like the one next to the shed with its own reserve over a skinny crane arm one but i'm just plain unsure and looking at online photos isn't telling me much. The station's water crane is about 250 metres away from the engine shed on a flat if that makes any difference with hydrostatic pressure. I'm quite happy to stick a medium-large rectangular tank near the station area as I still have free space there and trust it could provide the primary source for the shed one too, but would that make the small tank redundant or just mean it doesn't need a pump? Pointers will be appreciated Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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