EBT Saltillo Tankhouse

Randy_Lehrian_Jr · July 2, 2015, 2:10am

Some of you may have seen the thread where I’m searching for a portable track for the EBT fall reunion. These tracks are lots of fun but always seem a bit bland for me. My hope is to model a scene of Saltillo on the inside straight section to spice things up a bit. To that end I built the first of 3 structures. Saltillo’s Tanks House. The construction is a base of stout corrugated card board. This is topped with some 1/16" thick solid fiber cut outs to form the batten boards and window framing. I did all this on my cnc table at work so it was fun to experiment with a rapid build method. You can see in the second picture that I cut all the strips inside a frame, then dipped it in glue and sat it in place. Once the glue set I trimmed of the frame.

Next came the roof. This is where progress slowed considerably. While my table cut great shingle strips, they still needed to be glued down. Lets not even discuss those lousy ridge caps and having to glue them down one by one. Ugg. But the results were worth it. Last I followed up with windows, a door and rafters in all the eaves.

I just need to use a bit of filler putty here and there, then give it a good dousing of EBT red. Oh, lets not for get a spout…

Devon_Sinsley · July 2, 2015, 4:21am

Very cool

Joe_Zullo · July 2, 2015, 11:49am

Randy,

That looks great. Nice going!

admin1 · July 2, 2015, 1:25pm

Wow, thats awesome!

AndyC · July 2, 2015, 1:35pm

Nice tank… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Randy_Lehrian_Jr · July 2, 2015, 1:41pm

Thanks Guys. I’m pretty pleased with it. Hope to have it finished by the end of the weekend. Just makes me want to build the real deal for outside even more. Once this is done, it’s on to Saltillo station.

capecodtodd · July 2, 2015, 1:48pm

That is terrific. It is cool to see new technology and techniques being applied to scratch building.

Will the cardboard base take paint?

PeterT · July 2, 2015, 3:18pm

Randy - looking good! Lots of EBT stuff being modelled this year.

Randy_Lehrian_Jr · July 2, 2015, 4:41pm

Todd Haskins said:

That is terrific. It is cool to see new technology and techniques being applied to scratch building.

Will the cardboard base take paint?

Hey Todd, The tech isn’t all that new, but yes modern. The table in my lab is 20 years old and still chugging. We are actually having issues since it’s an 8 bit design running on IT mandated Windows 7. It crashes a lot more now. I’ve had fair success in the past with paint on cardboard. Proof will be in the pictures soon to come. ( I hope (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif))

Pete Thornton said:

Randy - looking good! Lots of EBT stuff being modelled this year.

Thanks Pete, Well, it must have taken us younger guys a while but it seems we have become enamored and are attempting flattery by imitation. (at least in my case) Hoping to see you and some of your equipment at the reunion.

JRad · July 2, 2015, 9:24pm

Looks great. I love the EBT’s enclosed tanks. I’m sure you know that FEBT commissioned full documentation of the still extant tank at Coles and all the drawings and photos are available through the Historic American Engineering Record HAER) through the library of congress.

kstrong · July 2, 2015, 10:07pm

Sweet! Ozark makes a nice resin spout. It’s probably a bit long, so you’ll have to cut it back a bit. I’ve got one here to attach to my Blacklog tank. Whether it gets done between now and the convention remains to be seen. I’ve got a water standpipe at the east end of the siding, so if I don’t get the spout put back on, at least there’s still a way to water the locos.

Later,

K

Rooster · July 3, 2015, 12:43am

Nice !

Really like the material used

Noel_Wilson · July 3, 2015, 5:50am

Neat idea… But confused… What was the reason for that type of water tower and it’s called Saltillo’s Tanks House? Why not just a round water tank.

Just never seen one like that.

Randy_Lehrian_Jr · July 3, 2015, 11:39am

Thanks guys. Nice to have a project shape up so quickly.

John, Thanks for the heads up. I have seen that and used them heavily to guestimate a few things on this model since all I had were a few pictures.

Thanks Kevin, I’ll have to check out that spout for an out door version. For this model cheap is the name of the game and I already have the straight portion made form paper. Good luck with the convention!

Thanks Rooz, I love the material too since so far this hasn’t cost me a dime! I think the paint will be the most expensive part.

Noel, The East Broad Top had 5 water tanks or tank houses since they were all enclosed inside a building. The reason for this was to keep the water from freezing in the winter. Each of them had pump equipment for the water and a heat of some sort below to keep them warm in the winter months. Two of them had this tapered shape top to bottom. Saltillo and Mount Union. The rest had plumb walls on the bottom and a tapered top portion. Each had it’s own individual characteristics and you can tell from looking at a picture which one it was. Just another way that the EBT is very special.

Noel_Wilson · July 3, 2015, 3:53pm

Thanks Randy L… Very interesting… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

kstrong · July 5, 2015, 2:38am

Here’s a photo of the other style of EBT enclosed tank. This one is modeled after the tank at Shade Gap.

If memory serves, the Shade Gap tank had clapboard siding, not board-and-batten. I liked the contrast between the B&B siding and the clapboard siding of the station, and since I didn’t have room for the water tank at Shade Gap, I figured I could depart from prototype just a bit.

Later,

K

Ray_Dunakin · July 5, 2015, 5:32pm

Cool project.

joerusz915 · July 5, 2015, 11:46pm

Real nice, Randy. What’s that car lurking in your avatar? Or is it avacar? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Randy_Lehrian_Jr · July 6, 2015, 5:06pm

Thanks Ray and Joe. The vehicle I have my head jammed in is a 76 Jeep CJ-5 that my buddy built in my garage While I was doing my 79. That picture was taken after I did all the wiring in the engine bay. Currently trying to finish my 81 J-10 Truck (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)I’d really like to have a truck again.

Kevin, I really like your tower. I’ve seen a few shots of it before and it always made me want to do one for myself.

I didn’t get any work done on the tank this weekend. Between our 4th party and getting well into making 8 drawers for our built in units, I just had no time left. I’ll be tinkering with it through the week though.

Randy_Lehrian_Jr · July 24, 2015, 10:36am

Well, I know I said I would be finishing this thing about 2 weeks ago, but life happens. It’s still not done and won’t be until probably next weekend. I’m booked from now til Wednesday, but I thought I’d post a few teasers. This first shot shows some paint going on the rafters. I also did some bondo work on the tower corners and painted it too. It really came to life. Before paint I chopped off the top of the weight boxes to right about level with the eaves. I found a better picture that showed this area and realized I had it wrong.

Here is what I came up with for a spout. it’s just paper cut and glued section by section. I formed it around a pen that had just the right taper to it. next I added glue dots to represent rivets.

I need to find out how the spout was attached at the pivot point. None of the pictures I find show this, as the weight boxes tend to hid that detail. By the next up date you should see a finished model, but yes, there will be a whole week to wait. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-yell.gif)