I’m starting to scratch build a water tank. The tank was shown in MRR Feb 81. It was located at milepost 16 on the Sierra RR in Warnerville, CA. My question is how did the water level/gauge work and what increments was it marked in? Did it work as a float or ??. Were the gauges marked in gallons , feet/inches or just a reference level? They mentioned the gauge in the article but did not elaborate.
The picture is from the magazine and you can see the water level gauge on the right side of the tank.
The visible marker (close to the bottom in the photo) was a weight, connected to a float on guides inside the tank by a fine chain that passed over a pulley at the top of the tank. Thus, the gauge was a reverse indicator - close to the bottom of its travel when the tank was full (as shown,) close to the top when the tank was close to empty.
If the gauge was calibrated, it would probably have been marked in gallons. Tender capacity in the US is measured in gallons, pump capacities and pipe delivery volumes are measured in gallons per second/minute, etc… Any other measurements would have been rather meaningless.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with water tanks measured in cubic meters)
Thanks for the info. I had thought about a float / pulley system, but realized it would read “backwards” and was not sure that it would be done that way. Also I "assumed " gallons but wanted to hear from someone that knows.
