Re: Cisterns

Quote
John West
Over the years there have been various references to trains stopping to fill the cisterns along the line, most recently in Jimmy's notes about a December 18, 1961 train stopping to fill cisterns at Ignacio and Lumberton. Can any one provide any details about how the cisterns were used. I presume it was for general water needs, but for example at Ignacio I would think it was a big enough community that there would have been some kind of community water system. Where the cisterns an alternative to individual wells, etc.

I wanted to have something substantial when responding but have not been able to develop much.
As bad as it may sound I believe that at least some of the cisterns were for domestic use by employees. One example would be the Big Horn section house.
My posts for various years show filling cisterns at various locations and I always wonder how much of it was for domestic use. The filling of cisterns at Igancio and Lumberton during December 1961 I would guess was not for domestic use, though I cannot verifty that at present.
The water cars provided for Arboles during June 1966 was for domestic use, being a temporary fix for some sort of problem. But that did not involve the use of a cistern.
During the 1940s our family moved to a section that had a cistern. However, by the time we arrived it was not in use. Our water came from a water car spotted on a spur next to the section house. It was in 1954 when we moved to a section that had indoor plumbing.
The cistern question is an interesting one and I hope I can find some information pertaining to their use.

Jimmy