For those that are just joining in on the discussion here is a little more about the prototype New York Central track pans in Rome, New York and our model of that facility:
In 2018-19 the model railroad group of the Central New York Chapter, National Railway Historical Society Inc. turned one of it's old eight-foot modules into a model representation of New York Centrals water track pan facility in Rome, NY. Note you will see the the end of the track pans and how it was placed in between the rails on the railroad ties. To the right, the railing-looking structure is actually asbestos wrapped water pipe that carried hot water to the pans during the winter to protect them from freezing. The square tiles were placed to protect the track ballast from being blown away from the high pressure over-flow water from the tenders.
The Rome facility pumped water from the Mohawk River (part of the Erie Canal) using a steam engine. The actual pump house was located down over a steep bank closer to the water. The steam engine pump was coal fired via gravity from coal hoppers on (I believe) three track sidings on the north side of the 4-track mainline. In our model we decided to show the coal bunker as that was also used in several other facilities along the route.
This short film is the New York Central track pans modeled on our club layout based on the Rome NY facility.
