N&W in 1904 -- Water Tank

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BIG WATER TANK IS ALMOST COMPLETE
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Many Tons of Steel Used in its Construction -- The Pump House
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    The Norfolk and Western have their tank on the hill near the Round House about completed.  The pump house is situated at Graham in the midst of the grassy plot just west of the old stone depot that was destroyed by fire some years ago.  The location is a good one, being in a triangle formed by three tracks of the Norfolk and Western.  It was for the purpose of supplying the round house and shops in this city with an adequate supply of water that all the water rights on Bluestone river were purchased some time ago.  The pipe line has been laid and the pump station completed at a cost of about $40,000 [blurred, best estimate].  The big tank under construction on the high hill near the round house will be one of the largest iron tanks in the state.  It is forty feet high and forty-three feet in diameter and will hold 435,000 [blurred, best estimate] gallons of water.  It will supply eighty-five engines with water daily.  Sixty-five tons of steel have been used in its construction.  This provision for its own water supply is a good move on the part of the railroad company, as it not only insures the company a good water supply but leaves the water company better qualified to look after the wants of the city.  The work of erecting the tank is being done by the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company, of Roanoke, under the supervision of Mr. Harry Jenkins, who says that the tank would have been completed before now had the weather been favorable.  This will fill a long felt want, as in times of water scarcity the railroad has had to run their engines to Graham for water.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 17, 1904

[The pump house location described would have been inside the wye that used to be in Graham (later Bluefield, Va.).  One leg of the wye was formed by the main line and the second leg by the Clinch Valley line that branched off there and the third leg was a now-gone track to the west that connected the two lines.]

Gordon Hamilton
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