Needleton tank fills from a pipeline that has a head gate on a creek some distance up the hillside. Currently, at the original tank, there is about 60 lbs of pressure on a 2 inch pipe, more than enough pressure and volume to keep the tank full, if the tank was capable of holding water. The same water system feeds the steel tank currently used about 300 feet up the track. The engine crews dislike the location of the replacement tank because it is on a curve and very difficult to spot the tender, and have been lobbying to get the old tank back in operation. The current budget is $90,000, and to put the tank back into fully operational condition would take another $60,000 or more. The entire tank body is shot and would have to be replaced, or some sort of liner be put into it. Half of this project is being funded by the State of Colorado through the limited gaming fund, also known as the State Historical Fund, and is the first such grant awarded to the D&SNG. I belive the Chama operation has had at least one, maybe more.
Other tanks, like at Gato, Florida River, etc., used pumping operations, originally steam operated with many converted later to some sort of internal combustion engine power source for the pumps. The tank in Durango before it came down used city water in its later years, though I'm sure the original source was a pump station on the river. Interestingly, the Silverton train now has all the toilets cleaned each day while the train is on the wye, and the contents are dumped into a special manhole into the Silverton sewer system. A standpipe was installed some years ago down by the station so that a fire hose can be connected to fill a tender if water is needed in Silverton. And the D&SNG pays a fee to the town for all this. I became rather intensely involved in this sewage operation yesterday when I inadevertantly drove over the discharge pipe that was laying on the ground, much to the dismay of the guy doing the work. Fortunately, it was not in active use at that moment.
