SPOUT TRANSPLANT

So far, nothing I had done

precluded salvaging the BLI wood water tank for use as a static model elsewhere. That came to an abrupt end when I realized that I needed a heavy metal spout for my steel water tank. I didn’t have good photos of the entire spout mechanism of the NKP tanks, but it was clear that I could not allow the spout support mechanism to hang down from the side of the tank without more support.

I therefore decided to slice off the nibs holding the spout frame from the BLI tank and attach the entire frame and spout to two 28'-6" lengths of .080"-square styrene that extend from the bottom of the main portion of the tank all the way down to the base. (I suspect the prototype tank had a horizontal beam between the two trackside legs that secured the spout; this could be made using extra leg parts from the Tichy kit). I then glued the BLI spout frame to the two supports.

But I was nowhere near out of the woods yet. The end of the link dangling from the arm attached to the servo was much higher than the centerline of the spout. Reminding myself that this was both an experiment and a quest to animate the spout of a steel water tower more than a quest for absolute realism, I pressed on. (Besides, I told myself, the spout faces away from the aisle, so small transgressions may be overlooked.)

To connect the end of the link attached to the servo arm to the back of the spout would require a piece of something about 1" long. It occurred to me that I could use a length of ⁄16"

3 brass tubing, which would suggest a connecting water-delivery pipe.

I measured the distance between the end of the link and the attachment point on the back end of the spout when the spout was at the height needed to rest on a Berkshire tender. That distance was indeed about 1". I crimped one end of the tube, drilled a hole in it with a ⁄16" bit

1

(the hole may need reaming out a little) to snap into the “tongs” on the end of the servo link, and cut the tubing. To hook over the “bar” on the end of the spout, I bent a length of 14AWG copper wire into a J shape, flattened it enough so that it easily slid into the back end of the water spout, and soldered into the tubing.

I then snapped the end of the link into the hole in the crimped end and, with some effort, managed to slide the wire hook onto the end of the spout. After squirting some Kadee graphite powder into the pipe connection, it was showtime!