Ballarat Water Tank

Adjacent to the sidings serving the Ballarat Carriage Sheds stood a steel water tank. This relic of the steam era remained well after the last regular steam workings in Ballarat, perhaps for the servicing of steam locomotive hauled tour trains.

An undated photo by Glenn Carter of W260 in the Carriage shed sidings. Note that the water tank appears in good condition and might have recently been repainted.

For this project I used a water tank that I had constructed for a previous layout. I can't recall what prototype tank this was based on, but given the layout was set in Northern Wimmera and Southern Mallee, it was probably based on a tank on the either the Mildura, Pinnaroo, Patchewollock, Yaapeet or Yanac line.

The tank itself came off a European model with it's conical base discarded. The tank base is made out of Plastruct and Evengreen styrene L and I angle and styrene sheet.

To match the prototype at Ballarat I had to reduce the height slightly. I also had to move the ladder from the rear to the side of the tank closest the carriage shed. I used a large styrene rod to replicate the water main pipe. There was also a small pipe near the ladder that I produced with brass wire. The measuring device on the side was made out of styrene sheet with the label printed on the computer. This is actually a river height gauge but at this scale isn't noticeable.  The wheel with the float comes from a Steam Era Models passenger car brake gear.

I haven't permanently fitted a water column to the tank yet. The photo with W260 doesn't appear to show a column, maybe at this stage it was only feeding to water columns elsewhere in Ballarat yard. I know that there was a column near signal post 17.

I still need to paint the backdrop in this area and add the signalling conduit, light pole and bushes.

I'm not sure if the tank was still in place in 1983. I can't find any photos of this section of Ballarat yard except the photo below of W243 and W260 resting between shunting duties on 15th April 1983 which appears to indicate that it had been removed.

W260, W243 and an unidentified Y class rest in the Carriage shed sidings between shunting duties at Ballarat, 15th April 1983. It appears that the water tank had been removed at this stage.

K184 being serviced on a tour to Ballarat in 1970s. The tank has a column in this photo, partly hidden in the shadow of the tank. The water column near post 17 can be seen to the left hand side of the photo.

C7 is about to have its tender topped up at the water tank.

C7 reverses onto a CW van near the water tower.