Water tower

[martin goddard]

Probably a question for Neil?

A water tank out in the desert from which trains get their water.
Like the PP water tower model.

Is the water put up there by buckets?
i.e should there be  a set of figures carrying buckets of water from a water wagon up steps and into the tank?

https://www.peterpig.co.uk/21%20%20Scenery.html
Pack 29.


martin

[Colonel Kilgore]

Wikipedia suggests that in general windmills, watermills or hand pumps were initially used to fill such cisterns, with steam or gasoline pumps used later on.

Simon

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

The good Colonel (and Wikipedia) are correct. In desert conditions these were usually supplied by windmill pumps drawing water from deep wells... Artesian wells in the States (which did most of the work bringing water to the surface) usually furnished hot spring or saline water due to geothermal activity...Otherwise the company may have tapped into a mountain stream gravity fed supply via wooden sluice or aqueduct. It has got me thinking how the Hijaz Railway in Syria furnished its locomotives with water... If a steam engine were used to raise water, it would have needed its own reserve supply tank - so a shack/engine house with chimney, water tank and coal/wood supply would make as good an objective for sabotage as the main water tower itself.

Neil

[Colonel Kilgore]

Thanks Neil - you're way better than Wikipedia

I do have memories of small windmills spinning madly in the desert winds in westerns - now I know why!

So, I guess the upshot of this little thread is that Martin should no longer feel compelled to sculpt men climbing ladders with buckets (unless he's into generic window cleaners - there may be a market with the Hornby TT:120 fraternity...?) but could usefully consider a windmill for Western and MexRev settings?

Simon

[Smiley Miley 66]

Wow this is an interesting question and some good answers.
I think this must be the case for most waters towers?
Wether it's for Steam/railway or domestic/industrial use ?
But it does explain why on the old western homestead type farms you see in films etc, those high towers with the windmills upon them ? Something I suppose I've never give too much thought about !
Miles

[Colonel Kilgore]

You and me both, Miles! 

Simon

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Both steam locos and livestock get through a lot of water and the simple offset crank and piston tech was straightforward to replicate. You could order everything from houses to windpumps via a catalogue at the hardware store who would ship it in for you by train or wagon. For domestic use a bucket well or hand pull pump were quite adequate...

For lower tech solutions I always liked the shaduf - a long pole arrangement on an A frame that was a simple seesaw lever/crane to raise water from a well.

Neil

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

This slightly o.o.f. shot shows my scratchbuilt wind pump based on a design from around 1889.

[Colonel Kilgore]

That's a very nice model, Neil!

Simon

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

I thought I'd posted this before - in an appropriate Western/MexRev ranch setting

[Leman (Andy)]

Oh dear, now the mention of the Hijaz railway has got me thinking as well.

[martin goddard]

That really is nice.
Bring it to the next WESTERN day Neil.


martin

[Panzer21]

The good Colonel (and Wikipedia) are correct. In desert conditions these were usually supplied by windmill pumps drawing water from deep wells... Artesian wells in the States (which did most of the work bringing water to the surface) usually furnished hot spring or saline water due to geothermal activity...Otherwise the company may have tapped into a mountain stream gravity fed supply via wooden sluice or aqueduct. It has got me thinking how the Hijaz Railway in Syria furnished its locomotives with water... If a steam engine were used to raise water, it would have needed its own reserve supply tank - so a shack/engine house with chimney, water tank and coal/wood supply would make as good an objective for sabotage as the main water tower itself.

Neil

Well Beda Fomm in Libya had a windmill of the type seen in westerns, so it's a fair bet they were universal for desert conditions.
Neil (the other less Wikipedia one...)

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

There's a point where pressure will allow water to come to the surface - artesian wells drilled down into aquifer rely on the pressure of the ground above to squeeze water up through the pipe (more the lack of gravity allows the water to escape forcibly upwards to lower pressure but the effect is the same). The same principle is used for oil wells. Capping the supply and then controlling flow with valves does all the hard work for you. Windmills are primarily there to assist drawing water where that pressure is weaker.
So you could have instances where there is just a shack or pump house with no windmill

Neil