Coldwater: Water Column

Anything pertaining to railfanning in Michigan.
GP30M4216
Saver of all History
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Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:35 pm
Location: Feel the Zeel, MI
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Coldwater: Water Column

Unread post by GP30M4216 »

Part of my job often involved cruising around the state on Google Street View and a couple days ago I came across an interesting site. What appears to be a real legit water column mounted on the brick platform at Coldwater, MI, just to the west of the depot. What's more, it's new! Or at least, new to the site. Older Street View images do not show it there, but there are some manhole covers in the area and it's probably a historic water column location. My question is, does anyone know where it came from and does the Little River RR actively use it to fill their locomotives? Thanks!

Super Chief
Railroadfan...fan
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Joined: Sat May 26, 2012 9:53 am
Location: Three Rivers, Mi.--Indian Rocks Beach,Fl.

Re: Coldwater: Water Column

Unread post by Super Chief »

We built it ourselves ( LRRR). We do fill Numbers 1 & 110 with it the weekends they run. The Old Road depots usually had 2 of these between the main track and the passing siding. If you look at old pictures Sturgis actually had a bend in the passing sidings to clear the base of the columns. The new one you see in Google has a canvas snout you pull down to the top of the engines with a counterweight opposite to tilt the pipe back up when finished. The water pipe is dimensionaly correct per old drawings and photos used during its fabrication.

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