Building a Tank House (Part 1)

 I don't know how you do it, but I have so many projects, sometimes running in parallel to each other, that keep me busy and give me some time to think things over. So here I am back again with another iconic structure for my Surf Line layout.

In fact a Tank House is nothing different than a railroad water tank, except that it is almost a unique structure only found in the western parts of the United States, like California and less in Texas and Oregon.

The Tank Houses resemble an enclosed water tank, what they basically are. The supporting legs are covered with siding and the tank itself sits on a platform and is sometimes also enclosed.

There are so many different styles and I did not find a single picture which would suggest that there ever existed a standard design.

While searching the web for pictures or plans, I found this interesting looking structure with a windmill attached to it.

On the site of The Library of Congress I found b/w pictures as well as drawings for the John Krohn Tank House. It is located in the Santa Clara County in California and compiled by the HABS under the survey number CA-2111 (Historical American Building Survey).

The description tells us the following:


"This structure is typical of the hundreds perhaps thousands of tank houses that once dotted the Santa Clara Valley landscape. They provided a means by which ground water from private wells was stored and later delivered under pressure for domestic consumption and/or agricultural irrigation. This one was built for John Krohn, who moved to San Martin from Chicago in or about the year 1912. Its redwood storage tank has been removed, but a windmill remains in place. A portion of the enclosed tower may have housed a laundry room at one time" (Source Library of Congres)

Now with all the necessary information on hand I was able to start this project without guessing.

 

Using my scale ruler I traced the dimensions of the four trapezoidal sides of the supporting structure (or first and second floors) on a sheet of Evergreen .060" plain styrene and cut them out.
Then I scribed the location of the doors and windows on the wall sections with an Xacto hobby knife.

 With the same hobby knife I drilled a hole in the center of the window location. This goes fairly easy, but you could also use a drill bit. The hole needs to be large enough to stick the jaw of the Micro Mark Nibbler through.

This handy tools "bites" the unwanted pieces of styrene away. I worked along the score lines until the opening was cut out. Usually there is only minor sanding necessary to make the door and window castings fit properly.

 The plain styrene only serves as a core for my structure walls. I laminate the exterior siding and sometimes also the interior sidings, if I plan an interior, to this core.

In the case of this structure I used Evergreen V-groove siding. With a liberal amount of liquid cement, I glued the plain wall sections to the back of the siding. Before cutting out the wall sections the glue needs to dry thoroughly.

On two opposite wall sections I cut the sidings flush to the core and on the other two leave the siding longer, at least the thickness of the core plus the siding. These "ears" give the structure additional strength without glueing corner braces. This is especially critical when adding an interior.
From the back side I drill small holes in the four corners. These keep the hobby knife from slipping and damaging the siding. Here I used a .010" siding. This is easy to cut from the back.

The four wall sections are now ready for assembly.

I think the Campbell windmill would give a good stand-in for the tank house.

Thanks for following my blog and stay tuned for the next installment.