Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Santa Fe Freight Near Victorville - Mystery Loads
Gatwood, Elden J SAD
Ron, and All;
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To add: After the Loma Prieta earthquake, I was assigned to damage assessment in the Santa Cruz mountains outside Santa Cruz, CA. Even at that late date, there were water districts that had redwood water tanks and redwood water lines, that I assessed damage to, and wrote up for FEMA funding for repair. They were remarkably durable, unlike concrete or masonry. One large redwood tank above Scotts Valley, had slid partly off its foundation, but still had most of its water inside. Remarkable. Elden Gatwood
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From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of mopacfirst Sent: Friday, February 21, 2020 10:32 AM To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io Subject: Re: [Non-DoD Source] Re: [RealSTMFC] Santa Fe Freight Near Victorville - Mystery Loads That's the most plausible explanation I've heard so far. Comparing the load to the flatcar says these things are about 4', maybe 4'-6" max, in diameter. That's a reasonable size for water piping. Two to a car longitudinally says they're 20' long more or less, which was and is a common length for joints of pipe. I found a 1942 catalog of wood pipe which claimed extensive use, even at that date. The war probably boosted its use a bit. Blockedhttp://www.waterworkshistory.us/tech/Pipe/1942WoodPipe.pdf Not incidentally, they also built water tanks, which if I recall correctly had some use on railroads when they used those external combustion locomotives. I also ran across this photo -- Blockedhttp://www.waterworkshistory.us/tech/Pipe/1942WoodPipe.pdf Ron Merrick, piping engineer
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