The water tower was made from 3 inch diameter PVC tube, painted black. I then used wood stain, walnut color, on coffee stir sticks, that I glued to the PVC with GOO. (Reason painted PVC black is so that no white shows thru cracks. Roof also made w/these sticks.
The spout I carved with dremel assorted tools from a piece of pine 2x4 and painted it black. The metal parts that hold up the tank were made with plastic from a cheap toy store crane that I cut apart. I painted the plastic rust color.
The hoops around the tank were made with silver wire from Michael’s. I twisted and then cut the ends (to hold them together around the tank snugly) with pliers.
I used a section of chain from my Marine Corps dog tags, attached to the spout with an eye screw, and inside the tank to a record player motor. I hooked the motor up to an HO power pak and it yanks very quickly up and down. In future, I’ll get a slower RPM motor installed.
Dave, I clicked on your link and ended up with some sort of pop-up and a half dozen cookies I had to go back and delete. The last time I used your link this didn’t happen.
Sorry to hear that. I’ve had the site up for a couple years now and that is the 1st problem I’ve ever heard. I always get a little pop up, usually of a nice bikini girl on a beach, that I can only dream about.
Jerry,
Let us know your progress.
I forgot to mention that I used a square piece of lauan for the base of the tower. It also holds the little motor in the tube.
Im going to use a tube 5" wide to make it have the oridinal lionel size. Might Even get a solonoid to put inside to make a spout go down. Im going to make the gantrys out of popcyicle sticks. Hope this works.
Mine definitely is semi-scale. I had to clear a small patch in my forest to set it in. Btw, also forgot to mention that there’s a PVC tube running from the tank to the ground, thru which the wires run, then under the benchwork to the HO pack.
A stepper motor would work better. Or you even could run the spout chain down the tube below the layout to a tortoise switch. But the mechanicals on mine are all contained within the tower itself.
Jameco offers slow rpm motors that I would suggest, like 3-5 rpms
BTW, I forgot to mention something else. Whenever you are doing any project, like the watertower, I cannot stress enough that you should do some research. I looked over hundreds of water towers in books and on the web and picked one to model. Don’t ask me which real tower it was because it was so long ago that I don’t recall.
The MTH, Lionel and other water towers are just based on a single model for each company. The advantage of making your own, is to give it a customized look. And water towers came in inumerable variations.
That is part of the fun and excitment of doing it yourself!
Well that went over really well. I took the 5" wide pvc and cut it down to about 4 1/2". I did not paint it black. I didn’t have any coffe stir sticks, so I used popcycle sticks that I found at the dollar store. I glued the sticks to the pvc with weld-on 16 (thicker version of testors plastic model glue) That held the sticks perfect, and they are stuck to the pvc like a rock. I am very pleased with it already. Today I will make the base and the top.
The popsicle sticks might look a bit wide; but then again you might be able to pull it off.
Another possibility is to use an X-acto knife or razor knife, with a metal straightedge and cut thin strips of cardboard or plastic, then put some brownish wood color on them that makes them look weathered.
