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| Bibliography | Railroads |
Railroads using steam
locomotives made their appearance in the United States in 1829 and became
widely used until after the Second World War when they were replaced by
diesel-electric and electric locomotives. Steam locomotives used
large amounts of fuel (wood and coal) and water. By 1921 American
railroads consumed over 900 billion gallons of water annually, or about
2.5 billion gallons daily, more than any single water system
delivered. Railroad companies could either develop their own water
systems or buy water from local water works where they existed (if the
price was right). Water systems developed by railroads would often
serve nearby railroad properties, including stations, maintenance shops
and hotels, but in many cases would supply water to communities.
References
1850 Observations
on the consumption of fuel and the evaporation of water in locomotive
and other steam engines, by Edward Woods.
1851 The Locomotive Engine: Including a Description of Its Structure, Rules for Estimating Its Capabilities, and Practical Observations on Its Construction and Management, by Zerah Colburn
1870 The Central Pacific railroad: a trip across the North American continent from Ogden to San Francisco.
1870 How We Built the Union Pacific Railway: And Other Railway Papers and Addresses, by Grenville M. Dodge
1871 Garnered
Sheaves from the Writings of Albert D. Richardson, by Albert
Deane Richardson
Page 285: Sherman, like other desert stations, has a windmill some
twenty feet in diameter, which pumps water up from a spring into a high
tank beside the track. The tank holds fifty thousand gallons; the pump
will fill it in ten hours. When it is full, the water lifts a little
float: that pulls a wire, the wire shuts up the sails of the windmill, a
dozen yards away, and it instantly stops. When the tank gets nearly empty,
the action of another float opens the sails, and the windmill starts
again. The cost of the ingenious apparatus all set up is about six
thousand dollars. It might be used to great advantage for irrigating. It
is one of a thousand instances in which modern machinery, not content with
merely utilizing the forces of Nature, disciplines them into doing their
appointed work, without any eye to overlook them or any hand to regulate.
Page 289: Another day upon the desert. It seems to stretch out to
the crack of doom. Nobody can realize how great a work this has been until
he takes the long ride of four or five days and nights through dreary
wastes and unbroken solitudes. On this immediate portion of the road the
alkali water would corrode boilers and soon destroy them. For a hundred
miles, therefore, water is carried in tanks, upon platform cars, for the
locomotives. A supply will ultimately be brought from the Truckee River,
thirty-three miles, through bored tamarack logs. Several stations are
already furnished in that way, from springs six or eight miles distant. On
the Union Pacific, also, through the Bitter Creek country, water is
carried thirty or forty miles upon trains, to overcome the same
difficulty.
1873 Report
of the Government Directors of the Union Pacific Railroad,
December 1, 1873.
Pages 75-76: Location of 75 water-stations, dimensions of tank,
power used, and source of supply.
1889 The American Railway: Their Construction, Development, Management, and Appliances, by Thomas McIntyre Cooley
1890 "Union
Pacific Water Tanks," Railroad Gazette 22:614 (September 5,
1890)
Includes illustration.
1890 The Railways of America: Their Construction, Development, Management, and Appliances, by Thomas McIntyre Cooley
1893 Report
of the Commissioner of Railroads
Pages 103-128: Report of Railroad Engineer. Description of railroad
properties including water supply
1893 Buildings
and Structures of American Railroads: A Reference Book for Railroad
Managers, Superintendents, Master Mechanics, Engineers, Architects,
and Students, by Walter Gilman Berg
Pages 113-129: Chapter XIV. Water Stations.
1900 The Resistance of Locomotives and Trains: And the Water- and Coal-consumption and Power of Locomotives, by Albert Frank
1904 Official
Proceedings of the New York Railroad Club 14:283 (October
1904)
Water consumption for 10 miles, flat-bearing trains 33,198 lbs. [3,978
gallons or 39.8 gallons per mile]
Water consumption for 10 miles, ball-bearing trains 33,300 lbs. [3,990
gallons or 39.9 gallons per mile]
1916 In the Matter of the Complaint of J. E. Mills, et. al. vs Green River Water Company, September 20, 1916, Public Service Commission of the State of Wyoming | also here |
1917 "Railway
Water Supply," Railway and Locomotive Engineering
30(6):182-184 (June, 1917)
Consumption and cost - lakes and ponds furnish the best water
The estimated annual consumption of water by locomotives alone on the
railroads of the United States is 450,000,000,000 gallons.
Water used per engine mile:
Consolidation Locomotives - 219.6 gallons
Mallet Locomotives - 257.6 gallons
Mikado Locomotive - 202.5 gallons
1921 "Keeping
the Railroads Afloat," by Charles Frederick Carter, Scientific
American 125:218 (September 24, 1921) | pdf
|
The Water That Our Steam Lines Use in a Year and What They Do With it.
According to C. R. Knowles, Superintendent of Water Service of the
Illinois Central Railroad, recognized as the foremost authority on the
subject, the estimated annual consumption of water by the railroads is
900,000,000,000 gallons. As a considerable proportion of the water
used by railroads, amounting to 23 percent in some instances, is purchased
from municipal or private water corporations, and hence is metered, and as
a number of the larger companies have water service departments which keep
careful records, this estimate is more than a mere guess.
1921 "Construction
of the Pacific Railroad," American Railway Engineering Society
23(237):7-47 (July 1921)
1921 "Railway
Uses of Concrete," American Railway Engineering Society
23(238) (August1921)
Pages 84-: Water Tanks
1923 "Guaranty
Status of Union Pacific Water Company," January 18, 1923, Interstate
Commerce Commission Reports
1924 Epic
of the Overland, by Robert Lardin Fulton
1926 The overland
mail 1849-1869: promoter of settlement, precursor of railroads,
by Le Roy Reuben Hefan
1950 The
First Transcontinental Railroad: Central Pacific, Union
Pacific by John Debo Galloway, C. E.
1979 A
History of the American Locomotive: Its Development, 1830-1880,
by John H. White
Page 223: Tenders. Owing to the disproportionate demand of
the locomotive for water as compared to fuel, tenders were essentially a
water tank. The ratio of water to coal consumption was roughtly 7
to 1. Tenders were generally designed so that the fuel and water
supply were equivalent. In 1851 Colburn notes that an engine on
the Boston and Lowell Railroad consumed 925.6 gallons of water during a
26-mile run. A locomotive during this period could expect 25 miles
per cord of wood. A good average capacity for a tender of this
period would be 1,000 gallons of water and one cord of wood; it can be
seen that both commodities were adequate for about a 25-mile run.
1980 The Architecture and Engineering of Elevated Water Storage Structures: 1870-1940, by Carol Ann Dubie, M. A. Thesis, George Washington University. Thanks to the author for allowing this valuable resource to be scanned and included in this history.
1991 "Railroads and Water in the Arid Far West: The Southern Pacific Company as a Pioneer Water Developer," by Richard J. Orsi, California History, 70(1):46-61 (Spring, 1991) | Notes pages 135-138 |
1997 American Locomotives: An Engineering History, 1830-1880, by John H. White.
2000 "The Standardization of Track Gauge on North American Railways, 1830-1890," by Douglas J. Puffert, The Journal of Economic History 60(4):933-960 (December 2000)
2001 Perfecting the American Steam Locomotive, by J. Parker Lamb | table of contents |
2022 Reservoirs of the Horseshoe Curve, by Mark Glenn | Altoona Reservoir System – The Making of an American Water Landmark (video) |
© 2020 Morris A. Pierce