Kevin:
Earlier this year, the Prospector Magazine published a history of 278 that I wrote. You can still purchase back issues at:
[www.drgw.org]
278s tender cistern was probably built new. I was given the D&RGW 278 records by Jack Thode before he died and there is no indication of a tender transfer. The Alamosa shops were perfectly capable of building new tenders and did so many times. There was no standard plan for tender cisterns. When 278 and 268's new cisterns were built, they were made slightly larger to give them geater water capacity. The D&RGW did not have a water tank at Sapinero and they often had to siphon water from streams. Some of the new color videos show 268 taking water this way near Sapinero.