Wooden Water Towers

CN and CP enclosed their steel water tanks in wood, during the steam era when the water filled the tenders of thirsty locomotives. Stoves in the wooden water towers burned coal to keep the water in the steel tank from freezing, except where terminal steam heat was available. The towers measured 40 feet in height to the roofline, enclosing a twenty foot-tall steel tank. A float inside the tank connected to a galvanized iron ball on the roof gave a visual indication of the water level. The CP water tower at MacGregor, Manitoba is shown in 1984 (above, with an extra westbound of grain empties behind 5742) and on a June evening in 1980 (below):

The MacGregor water tower was later moved to the Manitoba Agricultural Museum in Austin. Note the former Midland caboose which did not survive the elements, and is in considerably worse shape than in my earlier Midland post, in these L.C. Gagnon photos:

A plaque gives some of the history of the the water tower and of its move to the museum:

Water towers that existed into the 1980's often became municipal water towers. Also in 1980, the tower at Miami, Manitoba is alongside the 1889 Northern Pacific station, and the ball is riding high. The tower was destroyed shortly thereafter.

On a 1986 road trip through Saskatchewan, I encountered two more water towers still standing. Harris is on CN's Rosetown Sub, across from the elevator track where three covered hoppers are spotted, including a CN slabside:

Looking from the other end of elevator row, the tower blends in with the trees. The Harris water tower later became part of the Harris town museum in 1992.

A quintessential prairie scene at Wartime: wooden water tower, wooden grain elevator, and arrow-straight track. CN's Elrose Sub extends to the horizon, and my rented Chevy Cavalier cools its tires, out of the baking sun in the water tower's shadow:

The elevators were dismantled by 1993, but the water tower outlasted them.

A different design on CP, at Spanish, Ontario in 1979: concrete base, wooden tank with steel bands:

CN supplied track gangs with potable water in tank cars. The tanks were either painted silver, like CN 51679 blt 12-16, or sprayed with insulation, like CN 80204 blt 4-29, to keep the water cool during the hot, prairie summer trackwork season, here in Portage la Prairie in 1984.