PRR wood water towers

I haven't tried a search, but chances are, if you didn't find them there may not be any.    

Two thoughts:    First a lot of tenders used 13,000-18,000 gallons, so a 35,000 gallon tank could fill 2-3 tenders quickly and then had to wait for refill.    Depending on the pumps or whatever, that might take a little while.    Hence no smaller tanks were used.

Second thought is that these were standard tanks on the mainline etc and there might be branches or purchased shortlines that had smaller tanks that were not Pennsy standard.

Thanks for the insight.  I'll try more research.

Did you check with the Pennsylvania Railroad Historical Society?

I have looked on line at the standard plans but I have not asked them this question. Good reminder. Thanks. 

there's a book: 'Along the Mainline' that illustrates pictorially the PRR in it's earlier years. you should find photos of a wooden water tower/tank there, if they exist.

The PRR standard water tanks were 35,000, 50,000, 75,000 and 100,000 gallon capacity. They may have had smaller wooden tanks in their infancy but later on once they became "The Standard of the World", I doubt it.

There was a wood water tank located at Longfellow, PA that served two standpipes located between the nos. 1&2 and 3&4 tracks.  The stone foundation still exists but, the wood part collapsed years ago.

For photos of wood PRR water tanks; I would recommend a book put out by the PRRT&HS back in 2000 titled "Lewistown and the Pennsylvania Railroad".  This book has numerous photos of PRR water tanks in central PA including the twin tanks at Denholm, PA as well as a couple on the Sunbury & Lewistown branch.

I've no idea if this book is still available but, if interested, a place to start would be to reach out to the PRRT&HS.  I think the Mifflin County Pennsylvania historical society also sold these books when first published so they might be a plan B if you strike out with PRRT&HS.

Curt

Just checked and this book is currently available on Amazon.

Curt

Volume 1 of 'Trackside on the Pennsylvania' by Jeff Scherb has some water tower diagrams.

 Been so busy working on my layout I forgot to look at my thread. Thanks for all the replies.  I  hope to research the resources this winter.

There is an existing smaller PRR water tower in Orleans NY, on the abandoned Elmira branch. A quick google search brings it up.

Thanks for the tanks. Sorry about that. I can get lost in the interesting finds in the research. It appears from what I have seen so far that many wooden tanks were in the range of 30000 to 50000 gal. The tank diameter of the majority of the design drawings I have found indicate 24 ft. I found a drawing of the enclosed water tank and it would be a neat project to add to the everlasting list of modeling to dos.

There was an enclosed tank on (even a purchased branch of) the Pennsy??

The subject of wooden water tanks came up on the N&W board a few weeks ago. Come to find out that all of the N&W's wooden tanks were supported with steel, not wood.

colorado hirailer posted:

There was an enclosed tank on (even a purchased branch of) the Pennsy??

Sorry for the unintentional vague post on that. I meant to say that I found "a" drawing of an enclosed wood tower. The site, FreeModelRailroadPlans.com states the pictured diagram is based on a photo shown on the website identified as Cole's station on the East Broad Top RR. Pretty neat structure.