Old-style small-town water tower

Under development...Based on a Plastruct kit I built a little while back.Please provide feedback (good or bad).

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RE: Old-style small-town water tower, nw_fan, Oct-01-02, 07:22 PM, (1) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, Coonskin, Oct-01-02, 07:31 PM, (2) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, CGW409, Oct-01-02, 07:37 PM, (3) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, Railfan727, Oct-01-02, 08:05 PM, (4) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, Railfan727, Oct-01-02, 08:15 PM, (5) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, rpicardi1, Oct-01-02, 08:20 PM, (6) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, Railfan727, Oct-02-02, 10:46 AM, (7) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, atsfdude, Oct-02-02, 11:27 AM, (8) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, nw_fan, Oct-02-02, 02:03 PM, (9) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, pvoxland, Oct-02-02, 02:18 PM, (10) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, Coonskin, Oct-02-02, 03:01 PM, (11) RE: Old-style small-town water tower, CGW409, Oct-02-02, 07:31 PM, (12)

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Definitely good feedback!

NORFOLK & WESTERN
Precision TransportationMike Rector
mrector@columbus.rr.com

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Definitely looking good! The style/shape of the tank will allow it to be used from the 1900's up until recently.The remaining stand-alone water tanks around here all seem to have taller supporting towers. Height = Water pressure.For a stand-alone tower, might try experimenting adding another length or two to the support tower?As it sits right now, it would work GREAT on top of an older brick industrial building. It will be useful!Andre

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LAST EDITED ON Oct-01-02 AT 07:38 PM (EDT)

Railfan
Nice start, the only things I'd point out is to bring your support legs in closer to the tank(so that they're flush with where the bottom bell meets with the sides,make your cross supports a bit smaller than the uprights,make the roof cone not quite so steep and shorten the tank itself a bit,you need to put in a walkway with railing near where the support legs should be moved to,you need to put in a standpipe from the bottom of the tank to the ground and the tower seems a bit short.
most of the towers of this type that still exist in my area are probably minimum of 90'-100' to 130'-160'I'm not trying to rip your work apart it's just this type of water tower is on my TSM to do list so I've been studying the prototype closely lately so if my observations can help a fellow modler I want to help

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LAST EDITED ON Oct-01-02 AT 08:06 PM (EDT)

CGW,Your feedback was exactly the type I was looking for. It's been quite a while since I've seen one of these towers, and I don't have any photos handy. The only thing I had to work from was faint memories of that Plastruct kit.As far as railings go, are they extremely important to you? I could probably do it with alpha texturing, but it sure would be a beast to get everything matched up right.So do the support legs go straight into the tank itself then?I can only imagine how heavy that tank must be when it's full...all of the designs I tried with the legs going into the tank looked like they would buckle under the weight. So I'll play around with it a bit more and post another screenshot when I get something that looks a little more realistic.Bruce Bridges

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Also, I don't recall seeing aircraft-warning lights on old-style water towers...even though they're clearly tall enough to require them under current FAA guidelines. Are old structures somehow exempt?

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LAST EDITED ON Oct-01-02 AT 08:22 PM (EDT)

This style of tower, place the legs just under the edge of the bell, also uses web girders similar to the truss bridges. You may want to experiment with this. (borrow from the tga file of SRVBrdR1.zip the open web girder pattern, silver for new, rusty brown for old.) The open web girder is only visible from the outside of the brace, you won't need the alpha texture on it.Horizonal ones are open web. Diagonal braces are just guy rods. Use railings for a close up tower. Suggest you add that last as a seperate object originally as a extruded 16 segiment 2 poly part, then bend to shape. (TSModeler won't wrap properly as a tube.)If I drive by the one in Caro Friday, I'll try to get a pic for you.Edit, this tower is by a small airport and I haven't noticed any warning lights on it.SRV Ron

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Guys,Thanks for your input. Based on your suggestions, here's what I've come up with so far.

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That is looking good!! I have a spot or two for it on my route.
-- John Tackett --

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EXCELLENT!

NORFOLK & WESTERN
Precision TransportationMike Rector
mrector@columbus.rr.com

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Here is a picture, gathered from the Internet, of the Cloquet, MN, water tower. I had been intending to take a photo of it because I also would like to have an old tower like this in a route I am working on. Your 2nd model is getting very close to the look of this style tower, Perhaps the subtle differences being that the tower in the photos has a slightly narrower water "pipe" coming up from the ground, and the legs spread out a little more (but not much). I think the your ratio of the overall height of the tower and supports to the width of the tower are excellent. I'll be really looking forward to this addition to the library!

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http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d9b37042de733b2.jpg

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Looking really good! I too, will have a use for that lil' puppy once I'm up and going on my route. Many thanks are in order for you efforts. Though I only know how to paint engines, MSTS needs more and more scenic items.You know, this thread reminds us what this forum is to be all about: A guy posts for some input, great input is given, the results of that input are shared here for all to oogle and get excited about. Great stuff.Too bad about the main forum.Andre "Coonskin" Ming

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Bruce
Just posted to the newer post
Forget the alpha tex I've seen the railing done by doing an L shaped piece(the lower "leg" of the L as the railing upright) and canting it slightly to the next piece to make a circular railing.
As to the collision lights I've seen some that have them(or I should say had as those where replaced by newer towers) most of this type that still exist are dark

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