This red-painted, wooden tank is not the "real" Baker Tank. The real tank held 9,305 gallons of water, not enough water to quench the thirst of passing engines, so it was replaced in 1910 by the Denver, South Park and Pacific tank you see now. This tank originally fueled the giant engines going through the west portal of the Alpine Tunnel. Ore from the nearby Mountain Pride Mine was loaded here in addition to the water.
Tenders, small cars located behind a train's engine, carried coal and water. Coal-fed fires kept the water simmering and steam rolling. Cinders along the track are evidence of the heavy use of coal. The engines drank huge amounts of water, which was replenished at the tanks. The distance between tanks depended on the grade. The steep grade up Boreas Pass required two stops, one six miles up the pass at Selkirk and another at the summit, before the trains made a third stop four miles down from the summit at Baker Tank. The average distance between stops under normal conditions was 30 miles.
Tanks were placed below natural streams and fed by gravity. The tank's spout, hinged upright in its resting position, was lowered into the open hatch on top of the tender. Then a flap valve in the spout was opened to release a gush of water into the tender. The entire operation took no more than a few minutes.
A coal station and 350 feet of side track stood near Baker Tank. A spur went off the track at the tank to service the mining camps in Indiana Gulch. Courtesy of Summit Historical Society
