I recently completed my scale model of the Dos Cabesas water tower for my garden railroad. Here are the pics, beginning with a shot of the prototype (San Diego & Arizona RR) tower in the Anza-Borrego desert:
next four shots are of my model.
The foundations are cast concrete. The support structure and platform are made of western red cedar.
The tank was built up from a 7" diameter aluminum tube. To get the correct diameter, I had to wrap it with two layers of 1/8" thick plastic sheet, glued down with urethane glue. The weld lines were simulated by masking off all but the lines. Thick epoxy was then brushed on. The masking tape was removed, leaving a thin bead of epoxy.
The ladder and bolted "manway" were purchased from Plastruct. A second manway was used for the underside of the valve assembly (not visible in the photos).
The water level gauge on the prototype is a pipe with a slot running down it. A weight fits inside the pipe, with a marker that protrudes through the slot. The marker weight is attached to a cord which runs up over a pulley at the top, and down into the tank. At the other end of the cord there would have been a weighted float. This allowed the marker to rise and fall along with the level of the water.
For my model, I used a cutting wheel on a Dremel to cut a slot in a
1/8" diameter aluminum tube. The pulley and marker were simulated with bits of brass. I did not attempt to duplicate the cord or weights for the gauge.I did want to duplicate the rigging for the spout, but most of it is missing from the prototype. I also could not find photos of any other water tower that had exactly the same type of spout hinge. I had to make an educated guess based on the bits of remaining hardware. I also had a few photos dating back to the mid-70's, when the tower was in better condition and more of the hardware remained intact.
The spout itself was based on photos and drawings from other water towers, and was constructed from brass and cardboard model rocket tubes. The cardboard parts were coated with resin to harden them and protect from the weather.
When the spout is pulled down, the two lead counterweights rise on guide rails. There is another lead weight inside the tank, hanging from a cord which is attached to both the spout and the lever mounted above the spout. In real life this cord would have been attached to some sort of valve inside the tank (possibly a flapper valve?)
For now, the water tower has been placed temporarily at the east end of the layout where it will be out of the way during construction. Eventually it will be moved to another area.
The last two photos show some construction progress at the west end, where I'm building several tunnels and a large mountain.=20
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