Concrete Water Tank

[NW Mailing List]

This discussion can be carried to another level. 

A 200,000 gal water tank holds about 800 tons of water (200,000 gals X 8 lb gal = 800 tons.) Spread that weight out over a dozen footers, and each footer must support (only) 66 tons of water + some additional load for the structure. 

That is not a lot of weight for a footer to carry, but I am wondering how footings were handled in places like the Dismal Swamp? How deeply were they carried down, and how does one excavate to bed rock in a swamp...? 

A 200,000 gal tank could fill twenty very old 10,000 gal tenders, ten modern 20,000 gal tenders, or 6.6 30,000 gal whopper tenders. This makes me wonder about the re-fill rate. Anyone know the hourly capacity of the steam, distillate engine and electric motor pumps which were, over the years, used to re-fill the N&W tanks? 

Some railroads had a Superintendent of Water Service. Who, on the N&W, wore the King-Waterboy hat? And did this function (water supply) fall under the Motive Power or the MW Department? 

-- abram burnett 

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