Our initial product was the classic model 9310 Water Tower, based upon the prototype that stood in Santa Maria, California on the original Pacific Coast Railway. The water tower is unique, in that the base uses a bent construction technique that is similar to that used for trestle design. This design sets it apart from the classical hexagon or octagon post base that is modeled in many commercially available plastic water towers. The small to medium size capacity of this tower makes it feel at home on any narrow gauge railroad. Many of our water tower customers have owned, at one time or another, one of the popular plastic water towers, and have replaced them with our structure, commenting that it has more realistic detail and far stronger!

   The model 9310 Water Tower incorporates the use of over 50 screws of various sizes, however, few if any of them are directly visible at normal viewing angles! A similar technique is used for the construction of the water tank. Each tank stave is made of 1/4" thick redwood and is milled with an interlocking edge pattern. This allows the next stave beside it to overlap the previous one, thus hiding the over 150 miniature nails and waterproof glue used to assemble the tank. The result, is a tank that can support hundreds of pounds, but still appears like it is only held together by its hoops and turnbuckles, much like the prototype. One of the finest features of this structure is the charm of the hand shingled cedar roof! Each shingle is cut by hand and attached to a solid redwood subroof using Titebond II waterproof glue. The solid redwood subroof prohibits the roof from being crushed, if something or someone should accidentally fall on it.

   Our water tower also has the distinction of being the only known tower that has a perfectly counterweighted brass spout! When the spout is pulled down, it stays down.

   Finally, you may also wish to read the July / August 1994 Garden Railways Product Review of this structure, for those that have kept their back issues of GR.

   The water tower requires a space that is 7 3/4" wide by 6 1/2" deep. The overall height measures 13 3/4" tall. The tank is 5 1/2" tall to the base of the solid roof, and is 5 3/4" in diameter. We recommend that the front of the base be placed about 5" from the centerline of the track. The weight of the structure is about six pounds.  The tank and pumphouse can be obtained in our standard colors (link to Color Selection), or they can be obtained as raw redwood.

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