A couple of questions about steam era water towers…

[Cowley]

Well knowledgeable type people. This is actually for a friend who’s modelling a fictional small ex GWR terminus along the lines of Hemyock in Devon in the early 1970s:

Disused Stations: Hemyock Station

Would anyone know of any places where water towers/cranes hung around on the network disused into the early 1970s? I’m after photographs for inspiration really, especially if they were ex GWR ones, although anything around the country would be interesting as well as any anecdotes.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

 

[Gloster]

Well knowledgeable type people. This is actually for a friend who’s modelling a fictional small ex GWR terminus along the lines of Hemyock in Devon in the early 1970s:

Disused Stations: Hemyock Station

Would anyone know of any places where water towers/cranes hung around on the network disused into the early 1970s? I’m after photographs for inspiration really, especially if they were ex GWR ones, although anything around the country would be interesting as well as any anecdotes.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

I presume you mean water columns with a water reservoir (my description) being part of the construction. I have just googled GWR water tower and chosen images: there are a good selection of results.

I suspect that most water towers, particularly those with the water reservoirs on top, were pretty quickly removed once surplus due to the risk of them falling or swinging so as to obstruct the loading gauge; they would need to be kept in order and could not be allowed to quietly rust. I am not sure about anecdotes, although you could look at the beginning of Oh, Mr Porter! (or watch the whole film).

 

[Ashley Hill]

There was one in the GWR yard at Battersea,it famously appears on the cover of Pink Floyds 1977 album Animals.It is now at Buckfastleigh.
Wasn't there a water column in Exeter West yard well into the 70s? I think it was on the old down goods line.

 

[John Hunt]

Does this qualify?

File:Birmingham Moor Street Station - Water tower (6315768026).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org

(it was moved and rebuilt from Tyseley.)

 

[pdeaves]

Does this qualify?

File:Birmingham Moor Street Station - Water tower (6315768026).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org

(it was moved and rebuilt from Tyseley.)

There's still one of them at Kemble.

 

[zwk500]

Would anyone know of any places where water towers/cranes hung around on the network disused into the early 1970s? I’m after photographs for inspiration really, especially if they were ex GWR ones, although anything around the country would be interesting as well as any anecdotes.

Not exactly hanging around disused on the network, or GWR, but the Bluebell has a water tower that looks something similar to the one at Hemyock at Horsted Keynes, photos here: https://www.derekhayward.co.uk/BluebellRailway-1/Photographic-Tours/Horsted-Keynes-Station/

 

[Kingston Flyer]

There is still one at Cardiff Central (formally General):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water...ay_station_-_geograph.org.uk_-.3708303jpg.jpg

 

[341o2]

Not exactly hanging around disused on the network, or GWR, but the Bluebell has a water tower that looks something similar to the one at Hemyock at Horsted Keynes, photos here: https://www.derekhayward.co.uk/BluebellRailway-1/Photographic-Tours/Horsted-Keynes-Station/

The same at Swanage

 

[HSP 2]

Foxfield still has the tank and IIRC Sellafield has both the tank and crane. Haverthwaite has a parachute water crane / tank.

 

[Cowley]

I presume you mean water columns with a water reservoir (my description) being part of the construction. I have just googled GWR water tower and chosen images: there are a good selection of results.

I suspect that most water towers, particularly those with the water reservoirs on top, were pretty quickly removed once surplus due to the risk of them falling or swinging so as to obstruct the loading gauge; they would need to be kept in order and could not be allowed to quietly rust. I am not sure about anecdotes, although you could look at the beginning of Oh, Mr Porter! (or watch the whole film).

I must admit that I hadn’t thought about it that way but that’s a very good point.

There was one in the GWR yard at Battersea,it famously appears on the cover of Pink Floyds 1977 album Animals.It is now at Buckfastleigh.
Wasn't there a water column in Exeter West yard well into the 70s? I think it was on the old down goods line.

The main water tank stood where Exeter box does now until well into the diesel era I think. Didn’t realise that there was a remaining crane though.
Would some of these have remained in use for steam heating boilers?

Not exactly hanging around disused on the network, or GWR, but the Bluebell has a water tower that looks something similar to the one at Hemyock at Horsted Keynes, photos here: https://www.derekhayward.co.uk/BluebellRailway-1/Photographic-Tours/Horsted-Keynes-Station/

Yes. Very nice.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Much appreciated.
Re the one at Sellafield I did see that there and wondered if it was used to replenish steam tours along the Cumbrian Coast in the 1980s/90s?

 

[Gloster]

My impression is that the type of crane with a reservoir on top were most common at wayside stations or junctions where a loco would fill up en route or between workings. Larger stations or depots where a lot of water might sometimes be needed in a short period would mostly have large tanks located at a high level, often on their own building. Even small termini might have a separate tank, often on or near the loco shed.

 

[Cowley]

There is of course a rather iconic scene featuring a water tower in the Titfield Thunderbolt…

 

[Ashley Hill]

Here is a photo from the CRS site by Ron Kosys showing the water column in July 1971. It's to the right of the 47 behind the signal.

 

[Taunton]

Here is the GWR water tower at Taunton, unused for the last 55 years but a listed structure, completely incongruous surrounded by new apartments, and now cut off by the new road across the old goods depot land from the running line.

A3087 - Google Maps

The tank is the uppermost part of the structure, which appeared to be galvanised steel. The lower brick structure contained a pump and some accommodation. The water was pumped from the adjacent canal, long in railway ownership, as with the onetime Creech watertroughs a few miles to the east, alongside the same canal. This tower supplied all the columns around the station and in the loco sheds.

It's apparent that to fill a loco in reasonable time you need a good head of water, hence such high towers and storage capacity.

 

[Cowley]

Here is a photo from the CRS site by Ron Kosys showing the water column in July 1971. It's to the right of the 47 behind the signal.
View attachment 99494

Absolute diesel heaven Mr Hill?

Here is the GWR water tower at Taunton, unused for the last 55 years but a listed structure, completely incongruous surrounded by new apartments, and now cut off by the new road across the old goods depot land from the running line.

A3087 - Google Maps

The tank is the uppermost part of the structure, which appeared to be galvanised steel. The lower brick structure contained a pump and some accommodation. The water was pumped from the adjacent canal, long in railway ownership, as with the onetime Creech watertroughs a few miles to the east, alongside the same canal. This tower supplied all the columns around the station and in the loco sheds.

It's apparent that to fill a loco in reasonable time you need a good head of water, hence such high towers and storage capacity.

Being not too far away I actually knew about that one. What an amazing survivor after all these years…

 

[Gloster]

A quick skim through Edward Lyons’ book on G.W.R. sheds suggests that all the large and medium sheds, and most of the small ones in the Bristol and Newton Abbot divisions (effectively west of Uffington and Savernake) had tanks that were separate from any free-standing water columns. There were a couple of locations (Tiverton Junction, Yatton) where I could not identify the tank type, but only Bodmin, Helston and Minehead appeared to have combined tanks and cranes. Helston had a flat topped one, while the other two had conical tops. A few had the tank on a traditional solid structure with the crane attached.

EDIT: A further thought as to why some smaller stations had the water tank separate from the water column is that in many cases the water may also have been used for other purposes, such as washing coaches, flushing toilets, watering the flowers, etc. Drinking water might come from a different source through one or two taps. Additionally, having a separate tank makes it easier to have two columns, say, one outside the shed and another at the platform end. Depending on the track layout this could be desirable to avoid a lot of shunting around to get the loco to and from the shed every time it needs water.

 

[Taunton]

A quick skim through Edward Lyons’ book on G.W.R. sheds suggests that all the large and medium sheds, and most of the small ones in the Bristol and Newton Abbot divisions (effectively west of Uffington and Savernake) had tanks that were separate from any free-standing water columns. There were a couple of locations (Tiverton Junction, Yatton) where I could not identify the tank type, but only Bodmin, Helston and Minehead appeared to have combined tanks and cranes. Helston had a flat topped one, while the other two had conical tops. A few had the tank on a traditional solid structure with the crane attached.

EDIT: A further thought as to why some smaller stations had the water tank separate from the water column is that in many cases the water may also have been used for other purposes, such as washing coaches, flushing toilets, watering the flowers, etc. Drinking water might come from a different source through one or two taps. Additionally, having a separate tank makes it easier to have two columns, say, one outside the shed and another at the platform end. Depending on the track layout this could be desirable to avoid a lot of shunting around to get the loco to and from the shed every time it needs water.

The water distribution pipework at Taunton was notably comprehensive, from that tower which is a bit of a distance to the east of the station to all round including the sheds to the west. Must have been over a dozen columns. Don't know if there were distribution taps separate to the loco columns, but the (very) powerfui head of water at the column would have been a bit of a challenge applied to a garden tap! The pipework had been buried well down under the ground, which itself must have been quite a bit of a civils job (this was apparent when dug up for plumbing repairs), to avoid freezing in deep winter - apparently in the extreme winters of the 1940s Creech watertroughs would be frozen and the Cornish Riviera used to stop in the station for water. Norton Fitzwarren signalbox used to put out a special sign if the troughs were frozen. I always used to think, by its position, that the tower was from the big rebuilding and expansion of tracks around the station in 1930, but apparently, I now read, it's much older, 1880s. It used to have its own steam pump, and fireman, in the lower area, just like the Creech troughs did, but at some time, possibly in the 1930s work, they were replaced with automatic electric pumps.

In passing, I believe that some GWR towers at minor points did not have sufficient head of incoming supply water, and had a ground level steam pump which could be driven via flexible pipe connection from a locomotive, attached to the cylinder cocks. The GWR seemed to have a dislike of the town water supply, which of course had to be paid for, and preferred to arrange their own thing.

 

[HSP 2]

In passing, I believe that some GWR towers at minor points did not have sufficient head of incoming supply water, and had a ground level steam pump which could be driven via flexible pipe connection from a locomotive, attached to the cylinder cocks. The GWR seemed to have a dislike of the town water supply, which of course had to be paid for, and preferred to arrange their own thing.

I think that you may mean the steam heating pipe.

 

[Taunton]

I think that you may mean the steam heating pipe.

I never saw such in action, so it was an assumption as the only high pressure steam outlet. Would the steam heating pipe have enough power for a pump? I understand it had a pressure reducing valve down to about 10psi, hence the (relative) ease to couple a loco to the carriages.

 

[Journeyman]

There's a nice one in the middle of nowhere at Altnabreac station!

 

[CarltonA]

Aldershot still had a water tower in late 1975 I dimly recall. Rickmansworth had one still in situ last time I looked.

 

[Strathclyder]

There's still one of them at Kemble.

Beat me to it, here it is in April 1999 (image copyright remains with Martin Loader).

37703 & 37696 Kemble 27 April 1999

 

[HSP 2]

I never saw such in action, so it was an assumption as the only high pressure steam outlet. Would the steam heating pipe have enough power for a pump? I understand it had a pressure reducing valve down to about 10psi, hence the (relative) ease to couple a loco to the carriages.

I can not find my book that would have told me the pressure of the steam heating side, but I seem to remember about 20-30 PSI but I could be wrong. The reason that I mentioned the steam heat pipe is that it has a connector unlike the cylinder drain pipes. The other connection that I can think of is the one on the smokebox (I've forgot the name of it) but its main use was for the steam lance for cleaning out the tubes.
A pump can be set to run at the pressure you want it to, the chances it would be a rotary pump so depending on how high you wanted the water to go you would restrict the dia. of the pipe to increase the water pressure.

 

[Sm5]

Appleby has a working one.

 

[Pinza-C55]

There was a water tower at Thirsk station adjacent to the Down Fast ECML line until about 1985 I think , and I believe it was still working. There was an NER Parachute water tank near the King Edward Bridge in Newcastle certainly in 1978 and maybe a few years later. I think Haltwhistle station had one of its water cranes in working order till the 1980s.

 

[Sm5]

The others I can think of is East Ham (District line) and Northampton (Spencer Bridge Road) which are both derelict but in situe.

 

[Eyersey468]

Here is a picture of the one at Didcot I took last year, I hope it is of some use to your friend.

 

[2392]

There was a water tower at Thirsk station adjacent to the Down Fast ECML line until about 1985 I think , and I believe it was still working. There was an NER Parachute water tank near the King Edward Bridge in Newcastle certainly in 1978 and maybe a few years later. I think Haltwhistle station had one of its water cranes in working order till the 1980s.

There's still quite a monster tank with a stone/brick built base at Newcastle Central. The North Yorkshire Moors inherited a small tank wit a stone base and available via Hornby and their Hogwarths/skaledale range.

 

[Gloster]

Peco/Ratio do a variety of GWR water tower kits in both 00 and N. There should be one for most eventualities.

 

[HSP 2]

Photo of Carnforth water tank (background) ash plant (last one to survive middle) and coaling plant (maybe the last one.