B&O M&K Tower R

The drawing in Figure 1 is intended to provide a stable and consistent basis for development of models of M&K tower R.  The drawing is in three dimensions and is the result of interpreting the posted photo of the tower.  It required some effort to draw something, discover variants from the photo, make adjustments and try again, discover some interesting implications of the nature of the construction of the tower, make adjustments, fill-in unseen detail required to support the seen detail, draw, discover, adjust, etc.  Knowledge of basic dimensions of materials possibly involved helps a lot!

Some noted items as of 30, 27 March 2018:

• 1. The flared skirt is about 40" tall here, and is six courses of square cut shingles (in the drawing I have a fish-scale stand-in I had drawn previously).

  2. The first floor varies in heights from the B&O tower VN I have started.

  3. The first stair landing and flight of steps must have sunk about 2-3" from initial construction.

  4. The balusters are drawn as 1 1/4" square stock.

  5. The raised boardwalk from the first floor door to the steps must be an addition.

  6. No work has been done on the photo's back two walls yet, at least some info is shown through the windows to help with this. (Anyone else got more info?)

  7. I have drawn the roof top gutter outline, but have no idea where the downspouts are.  Are they routed inside the structure, or on the hidden sides?

  8. Was there indoor plumbing?  It looks like a drain vent stack on the back left side of the structure in the photo (drawn in a couple locations below).

  9. I note the light fixture on the second floor landing (not drawn here), but know nothing at the moment about the two bits of fixture hardware up near the plaque on the second floor by the open window (sorry I don't have the right name for that signal part at the moment....).

  10. There is some kind of sign just under the second floor windows near the middle, whatever it says.  (I have it say VINTON LOCK just because when I squint my eyes and turn my head the right way it seems it could say that.)

  11. Whatever time frame of this photo; the slate roof has the roof top gutters, but none of the peak and hip ornamentation.

  12. What is the date of the original photo?

Another drawing is being worked on for Tower VN, there are apparently a lot of variations in the standard tower....  in this case a curious height variation.

PS, I played a bit with the hidden walls: (30, 27 Mar 2018 3:14 PM)

This needs a lot of work on the chimney connection to the tower!  Any help is appreciated....

A couple more views, showing some of the work:

Figure 3 above also more clearly shows an approximation of the rods (connected to the levers inside) that are in the smudges in the photo this drawing is based on.  Just the first bit of the pipes are shown, from here they connect to cranks(?) and other pipes finding their way to switch points and locks. (Anything else?)

Figure 4 shows a puzzle that can happen when working from only one photo view angle.  What seems to be a vent pipe going through the roof on the back left could be drawn anywhere on the plane shown by the triangle.  Three possible vent pipes are drawn that present themselves in the right spot for the photo.  More information, another photo, a B&O drawing(?), or a personal account could clarify this.  For now it is a messy situation.  Note the location on the right puts it through the open area of the second floor near the corner, perhaps this is an OK location for a business use of the structure (not placed to be beautiful...).  Or is it a pole behind the structure as in Figure 5 below?

Here are other pipes, or the rods connected to the levers so the levermen(?) have something to do.....

It seems to me part of the job of the walkway is to let the operators get past all the pipes without hurting the rods or themselves....

More later....

All the best, Charles Sloane