Water Tank at East Mancos

I spent Saturday watching work on the East Mancos water tank. My business partner, Loren Lew, assisted by Kent Mallalieu, began the process of stabilizing the listing of the tank. They installed two guy wires that managed to bring the tank about 6 inches back in plumb. This will also keep the tank from continuing its collapse.

The location is well hidden from view. The under brush has taken over the site leaving just the roadbed passable. The two car bodies at the site have long ago collapsed. The adjacent bridge, which was curved, has been completely removed and the road now goes through the creek. The property is well posted and patrolled. We had lunch in Mancos in a restaurant that sits in the old rail yard.

Kent is a retired fire inspector from the Washington, D.C. area and the guy wires, actually cables, have insulators on each end to protect the tank from lightning strikes. I was surprised by how well the tank was considering how some other tanks, like the one in Gato, have fared in recent years. We worked on the Rico tank, so this makes the second Rio Grande Southern tank we have had contracts on. It really was quite an engineering feat to get the railroad from Durango to Mancos--something I am becoming more aware of.