Water: A Well Needed Resource

Water: A Well Needed Resource. . The well at the Gladstone Shops was crucial for site operation. The Shops used between 80,000 and 100,000 gallons of water per day. Without water the Shops and the locomotives they built and maintained would have come to a standstill. Water was used in the boiler and engine rooms producing steam, providing power to operate shop machinery and much needed heat during winter months. Water from the well was also used to fill the locomotive tenders as they left the site to pull the trains on the mainline., With fire a constant fear well components were installed below ground to guard against such an event. The Shops also had an eight-man fire company with fire pails distributed throughout buildings and a hose cart with 700 feet of hose. If fire had damaged the well mechanism, water could be pumped temporarily by using the locomotives stored in the roundhouse., By the late 1940s a 150-foot water tower was built to serve property renters after the railroad Shops were closed., The well house circa 1975. Today, the planting circle in this sitting area marks the eight-foot diameter well shaft. The limestone blocks from the upper portion of the well are still intact below ground., Finding and Capping the Well , After building demolition in 1979 the well's location was lost. Interviews, aerial photography, historic map research, Global Positioning System (GPS) data and magnetometer survey ultimately relocated the well in September 2000., Excavation uncovered an eight-foot diameter limestone well shaft filled with debris. This was cleaned out in 2001 down 35 feet before the well casing was finally discovered. Improperly sealed during site demolition to only 155 feet, this material was removed and the entire well capped to today's standards., Well contractor, John Johnson, removing demolition debris from the limestone well pit., Todd Petersen, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Waters Division, conducting magnetometer survey searching for the buried well., How Deep Was the Well? , The Gladstone well had a steel casing driven down 258 feet and then an open hole in bedrock. The well was originally drilled to a 750-foot depth but silt filled the lower portion over the years since the casing did not extend to the bottom. By 1900 the well's depth was 640 feet, by 1936 the depth was 615 feet, and by 2000 the well was 568 feet deep., Piping system schematic for the Gladstone Shops' well from the American Engineer and Railroad Journal, January 1900., Priming the Pump , Initially the well used a deep well pump requiring considerable attention and repairs. By 1900 Mr. G.D. Brooke, StP&D General Master Mechanic improvised an innovative solution using compressed air to pump water into two 50,000 gallon tanks. Air pressure in the Shops' piping was 125 pounds per square inch, which was reduced to between 60 and 100 pounds for adequate pumping and reduction of pipe vibration.