Water tower for trains where did thay get water how did water get in tank?

Question

Water tower for trains where did thay get water how did water get in tank?

Answer 1

In the UK water was supplied to steam locomotives mainly through water cranes or water columns, placed at the ends of platforms or alongside the tracks at sheds. Water towers were also occasionally used.

The railway had its own water supply system with filtration and purification plants, also reservoirs which were usually large tanks beside the tracks, supported by brick or girder structures.

Another way of supplying steam locomotive tenders while on the move was to lay a water trough between the rails. A scoop on the tender was lowered into the trough while passing over it and water was forced up into the tank.

Tank locomotives designed for working in tunnels for much of the time (e.g. on the London Underground) were fitted with condensers, where the exhaust steam, instead of going into the atmosphere, was piped back into the tanks where it condensed on contact with the cooler water there.

Answer 2

In San Jose, there is a water tank near the Caltrain station on Cahill St.  It's located about 500 feet from the Los Gatos Creek.  I would assume that when the tank supplied water for steam locomotives,  the water was pumped from an aquifer fed by the creek.

See the Google map link below.  The tank is located to the west of the RR yard throat, north of Park Ave.  It's a round tank with a black roof.   Or  use Live.com and check the bird's eye view.

Answer 3

All sorts of places.  In bigger towns the railways used the town supply, in some very small places the railways drilled wells which sometimes also supplied all or part of the towns.  

The railway would install a pump to raise water from the wells to the water tanks.  This would usually have been powered by a small steam engine in the early days but later they would have used a motor of some kind, that might have been electric if a supply was available.  Where train traffic was light they might have used a windmill.  

Other sources were small dams built by the railways, in very dry areas like parts of South Australia these were covered with roofs to reduce losses by evaporation and lined with concrete or stonework to reduce soakage.

In many places though they would have taken water direct from rivers or permanent streams.  

Despite the poor quality of some of the water, the demand from steam locomotives was so great that the railways had to use whatever was available.  Steam locomotives had blow off valves in the lower parts of the boilers usually near the firebox, this was just below a level called the "mud ring".  When sediment began to accumulate the fireman would open these valves for a few seconds and much of the mud would be blown out.  

Every now and then they would have to wash out the interior of the boilers.  

http://www.portatreatment.com/

Answer 4

Back when they used steam engines, railroads got water from whatever source was nearby.  Some railroads that ran in the desert, like the Santa Fe, had to use tank cars to bring in water since there was no convenient source in the area.

Most water tanks were filled by pumps.  However, I've seen one in Colorado that was filled simply by gravity.  A pipe ran down the mountainside from a creek and carried the water into the tank.

Answer 5

gravity, pumpor water flow from rain or creek