Well first off Im a Newbie [swg]!!..Ive been reading through the forums and getting up to speed I hope.
What id like to know is the water tower that im currently building is 3 inches in Diameter.To me it seems to big,yet ive seen pics model and real that suggest its not.As you can see my Diarama is just in the beginning stages with lots more to do,building finished painted and weathered,more trees,grass…u get the idea lol…Uve all been there.My setup is based around 1930’s ISH! and is HO.
Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately, you made your way to the Garden Railways forum but we are a friendly bunch and many of us work or have worked in smaller scales. You may want to post future questions over in the Model Railroader forums.
To answer your question, 3 inches is a very good size for a wood mainline water tank. It scales out to about 22 feet which is very close to this 24 foot C&NW tank.
David;
As Brian said, 3 inches is a good diameter. Went out to the garage, opened the HO foot locker and checked the two water towers there. Both are mockups of D&RGW, the single track measured ever so slightly over three inches, the two track tank was almost 5 ½ inches. Also as Brian said, most of us here have packed up the HO, the N, and the Z stuff and moved on to the large stuff. Some because the eyes can no longer focus on the small stuff, others because we like to sit outside with a refreshing beverage and still enjoy or trains. The guys on the Model Railroader forum will be more up to date on the smaller scales than we are here.
Tank size is a function of two variables. The first is how quick the source can refill the tank coupled with the second which is how frequently will it be needed. if you had an engine that took fifty gallons once a day and the source could replace 2.5 gallons an hour a 50-60 gallon tank would be adequate. If you have ten engines taking 1000 gallons each per day you are going to need a much larger tank and a much larger source. This is why some of the narrow gauge lines had very large tanks. The source was incapable for various reasons of providing sufficient water for replenishment in a timely manner. Most class 1 railroads probably had standards for tanks regarding capacity and design.
