Scratchbuilding a small D&RGW-style water tank
Although the prototype was in Colorado, this tank fits nicely on a Maine-based layout/Bob Bennett I
nterest and opportunity are often the stimulus for any initiative. If one has a bit of curiosity about a subject and the chance to take advan- tage of that desire arises, good things can result. The subject of this article is the focus of just such a confluence of cir- cumstances. I have always had an inter- est in modeling railroad water tanks. One of my very first scratchbuilt struc- tures was an octagonal HO scale tank based on an E.L. Moore article that ap- peared in the August, 1963, RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN. In my store of old modeling magazines is a copy of the September, 1967, RMC with an article on tanks by Paul Larson. And, when I first started writing for publication, one of my initial articles dealt with a series of HO water tanks and stations with in- terchangeable bases that ran in the No- vember, 1994, RMC. So much for the in- terest; how about the opportunity? In recent years, I have focused on replicating various Maine two foot gauge railroads, as much as possible, in On30. In this process, I have built a replica of the later version of the SR&RL Sanders water tank and have fabricated several water columns for as- sorted locations on my layout. However, I have always kept a place in my heart for a small D&RGW narrow gauge tank based on those at Jack’s Cabin and Villa Grove,
Colorado. While not Maine-
based, they are small and the right size for “narrower” gauge. Then, in the 2012 On30 Annual, published by Carstens, what should appear but a set of scaled- down plans for the Jack’s Cabin tank done by Annual editor Chris Lane. These plans for “Don’s Tank,” as Chris labeled them, were on the Annual’s ex- tras site (also printed here), and when I printed them I knew that Winnecook Tank, as it would be known on my South China & Sheepscot River line, was in the immediate future. Let’s start with the essentials. With any water tank project, one of the first hurdles is determining how the tank body will be formed. I have just retired from teaching history at a high school here in Maine that boasts a very talented and obliging woodshop teacher. Accordingly, one morning I wandered down to Dave Barden’s shop
42
PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
with a copy of the plans and asked him about the chances of getting a piece of wood turned to the dimensions of the core of this tank model. Shortly after lunch, the finished product appeared at my door; it was perfect in all dimen- sions and better still, it had been done
by one of Dave’s students. One of the often biggest obstacles in modeling this type of structure was overcome. As far as construction, I started with the tank’s underpinnings. For the basic framing, I followed Chris Lane’s plans for the timbers. They scale to roughly
JULY 2013
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