Ok say you trying to model somewhere in 1970s. Say a small company still keeps steam in service for exertions etc…. So my question is this. Would they still use a water tower for water? Or would they fill another way? Would they still use old coal towers? Keep them working? Or just use a front end loader? I ask cause I want to capture something that kinda fits….thoughts?
It depends on the size of the railroad. An excursion road most likely wouldn't have a coal tower. They would be filling their tenders with a clamshell bucket crane or a front-end loader. I think some of the narrow-gauge excursion routes still use some of their water towers, but if you are operating in an urban area, they would most likely use a standpipe or water crane connected to the water supply. Here is a random blog with a photo of what I'm talking about: http://whiteriverdivision.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-water-spout-at-wrj.html If the road is primarily diesel, the steam infrastructure would be minimal. How big of a locomotive are you trying to operate? Are you operating mainline excursions or mostly in captive service like a museum?
This is an excellent question. From my vantage point, I grew up in the Four Corners area during the 1970s. Just north of the New Mexico/Colorado border is Durango, Colorado which as you well know is the home of the Durango and Silverton Narrow Guage railroad. I do believe during that 1970’s era, and even today, many of the original operations were/are still in function primarily for the historicity of the operation. Water towers for sure, but do not recall how they loaded coal. However it sounds like the excursion line you are planning to create is fictional anyway, so why not let it be what you want it to be, with all the operational aspects of what you would envision an excursion using. Water towers, coal tipple, old time station, old western themed buildings (now available on EBay by the way), and lest we forget a huge roadside billboard advertising your fictional “tourist-trap-excursion-experience”!
Do a little research on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Guage line and it will give you a ton of great ideas. Heck, there are even Nn3 freight and gondola car offerings available that run on Z.
You could come up with a backstory and have both steam and diesel. If say the railroad donated their steam locomotives and servicing facility to a historical society, but kept their rail yard for breaking up trains to go different directions, then it's plausible. They could have a small roundhouse, coal and sand dock, water tower, and ashpit that were donated to the historical society for writeoff rather than scrapping. And they still use the yard to send some cars south and some west. The Western Pacific had a railyard in Portola and a small engine servicing facility, but when merged into Union Pacific, that servicing facility was no longer needed, so was donated the the historical society, but UP kept the small rail yard for stuff like bad order car storage, and as a crew change point. There is a fence between the two, but lots of old stuff like a rotary snowplow and old GP7 diesels are in their museum. WP could just have easily been merged in the steam era, and all the steam yard stuff donated and written off instead of early diesel stuff. So if the historical society/museum was well funded, they may choose to maintain their coal dock and water tower, where if they were poorer, and supported by membership and donations, like the Niles Canyon Railway, then they would use a fire hydrant and big hose to fill their water tender, and a half loader for their coal, and just run their excursion trains on a donated section of un-needed railway. It's your model railroad, so your backstory, this is what many serious model railroaders call Proto-Lancing. Have a plausible backstory, and model everything as prototypical as would be done if the backstory were true.
Honestly, such a railroad would more likely operate an oil burner, using the same fuel as the diesels. When the Freedom Train toured for the bicentennial in 1976, fire departments often dispatched pumper trucks to fill the tender. Any high volume pump would do. But an old fire engine would certainly be a scenic way for such a road to do it, if they didn't want to build a water tower. I recommend you do some research on the Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad. We're just guessing. They lived it in the seventies and eighties. And, of course, the Iowa Interstate is instructive, too.
Plain and simple they would use the cheapest most economical method available to them. So if the old water tower was still standing and in good working condition that is what they would use. If the tower is still stable enough to stay standing but not strong enough to hold water they may just run a new stand pipe up and through the old water tower to give the appearance that the old tower is still being used. The same for the fuel I would think they would use the cheapest way possible. But again if their was a old coal tower on site they may try to keep it standing to give the appearance it was being used.
Thanks for all the responses. I’ve been watching some crab orchard and Egyptian RR videos and it’s fascinating! Still haven’t seen how they maintained locomotive but that is the idea I’m am. Going for. That 70s era little fan trip little freight. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of it before.
Most excursions aren't long enough to require refueling. Many of them also use oil fired locos, which are much simpler logistically than coal. UP has auxillary water tenders they use to increase the range......I believe N&W also used auxillary tenders. On the Durango and Silverton, they require a water stop about half way up. The water comes from a mountain stream that flows into a water tank......when the tank gets full, the water just overflows back into the stream . The loco fills from the tank........the stop is out in the middle of nowhere.
