Question about on-line steam engine water service

Yes most major towns that the railroad ran through would have some kinds of water standard but perhaps  no coal .

 Seemed the engines used quite a bit  more water that coal and had to be replenished at every available opportunity.  

   I believe some smaller engines  could actually siphon water from a creek or pool.

And we all know bout the NYC Hudson's  scooping  water on the fly.

 Hopefully Hot Water will chime in.

Absolutely! The general rule of thumb of 10 to 1 ratio of water usage to fuel usage, required the replenishment of water at MANY more locations than fueling locations.

Thank You, Gentlemen!  That is what I thought, just wanted to get confirmation. 

I remember Hot Water telling us about a brass column he had,  I believe an old Precision Scale model, and the photos of said column on his layout.  A beautiful model.  I think these new American Scale Model columns rank right up there.

Thanks Again.

Dave

Dave,

I always thought my favorite RR, the Seaboard Air Line, only used water tanks for servicing their steamers, but every photo I've seen lately shows they used plenty of water columns out on the mainline.

I need to get a couple, they take up less room than a tank and I'm squeezed for space as it is.

True Jake, but it could be almost in any location, even underground.  A tank car sitting on a siding could also be used, which is what I have in mind as it would take up less space and add another "industry" to the layout

Still need a tank to feed the columns 

Not necessarily. In a number of mountainous areas, there was a reservoir higher up in the hills, and the railroad simply ran a large pipe underground, to supply the water column.

Later more modern engines usually were designed for water range of 125 miles and fuel range of 250 miles. If the engine has grease lubricated rods, which the vast majority of them did, that needed to be done at 125 miles approximately as well. This is why auxiliary tenders get widely used when big engines venture out into the modern world is that it roughly makes when you need water and when you need oil or coal occur basically at the same time. The logistics being challenging to do both these days, that is a big help.