SP Jawbone Branch (Part 57) - Rough Owenyo Water Tank Mock-up

Back in late 2023 I was working on making a set of CAD models for some of the Owenyo buildings that I'll be needing for the Jawbone Branch layout.

Water Tank - Owenyo station with tank and 5501 RSD-5 - Andrew Brandon collection - Cropped

A month or so ago I picked up some foam-core from the new Hobby Lobby in the local city.  They're offering fairly large sheets for $2.00, which I couldn't hold out on getting several sheets any longer.  So for under $7, I bought three sheets with the plan to start making some mock-ups of various Jawbone Branch structures that I've been planning for several years.

Owenyo Water Tank Foundations, Oct 30, 2023, my photo.

So after the SPH&TS Convention in Bakersfield, I went to do a field trip to Owenyo on the way home.  During this visit, I brought a notebook and took measurements of the remains at the site, including the cast concrete water tank foundation blocks.  So at least I know that the footprint of the water tower is 100% accurate and correct in size.  The height of the tank I've had to work at a bit more, but given the plethora of photos, I think I have it pretty close to the correct size.  I could probably stand to down-size the water tank by 10%, but for now I'll see how it looks at full size.

Footing for Owenyo Water Tank paper print.

Recently, I formatted these drawings to make scale elevation and foot-print to be printed on standard 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper.

Elmer's brand craft spray adhesive.

The printed elevation drawings are then cut out.  Spray-glue is then used to attach the trimmed paper elevation prints to the foam-core material.

Side and front view of legs with diagonal braces, plus hexagonal tank platform attached to Foam-core sheet.

Once the paper prints are glued to the foam-core, I cut them out with a No.11 Exacto knife and a razor-saw.  It took a little practice to ensure the No.11 cuts were square to the foam.

I also put the foundation and tank-top on 0.02-0.03" thick styrene sheets.

I also made the rough core of the water take from a supplement pill bottle, which was slightly undersized for the water tank diameter. I cut several sections of the side elevation of the water tank, which will give me the height.  The pill bottle is some form of PVC-type plastic, which was a little hard to cut with the razor saw, but once I got a slice through the shell, it went very quickly.  I cleaned up the cut edge with the No.11 blade.

Mock-up In 3-D

Completed 'rough' mock-up of the water tank.

I then sprayed the bottle with the adhesive and stuck the printed paper wrapper to it.  The bottom of the bottle will be the top of the tank.  After the spray was applied, I placed the paper wrapper into the glue with the original bottom of the bottle on a piece of Masonite flat surface, so that the wrapper was even with the bottom of the bottle.

Some of the underlying color did 'bleed' through the think paper wrapper.

Track-end view of the water tank in place in relation to the curved wye track.

The think plastic roof panel was roughly cut into a circle and placed on the original bottom of the pill bottle.

A reverse angle looking back towards the Owenyo yard.  I didn't happen to have an SPMW CS-25A water car handy.

The prototype tank is very interesting in that the tank's platform was built out of a set of hexagonal head timbers, then a bed of stringers placed on top of that, which I haven't modeled on this rough version.

A high-angle view of the water tank with the Owenyo yard.

In the right foreground, I'll need to make a mock-up of the water pump house.  There was also a fairly large tree, which will occupy most of the rest of the space between the oiled-dirt road and the dirt road that crosses the curved wye track.

I'll probably do a little coloring on the major parts of this model once the glue dries.  At least painting the tank a medium-dark gray/black.

Enlarged & cropped photo of SP Company House inside Owenyo wye - 1960, Alden Armstrong photo.

The left foreground of the high-angle shot shows the corners of the footprints penciled in for a couple of company houses, so I'll be getting to make those mock-ups for those at some point.  While the real Owenyo had about 5 company houses inside the wye, I'll only have room for about two.

In Closing

This project was a fun learning project to refine my building  'mock-up' skills with the foam-core.

SP Company Village Owenyo with coaches looking north circa 1940 - owensvalleyhistory,com - ebay35_owenyo_sml - (Lightened - Cropped)

I'd like to continue making a few more of these 'cheap' mock-up buildings and get a chance to evaluate their size and placement on my model of Owenyo.  While, I want to have the SP company village, it will be a bit challenging to have it along the front edge of the layout and not getting bumped too much during operations on the layout.  Thankfully, most of the heavy "operations" will be down at the west end of the town (to the right) away from most of the foreground structures.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 39) - A Ferro-Equestrian Archaeology Field Trip - Research Trip Nov 1, 2023.