MacGregor Canadian Pacific Railway Water Tower

The MacGregor Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) Water Tower is a tall, octagonal wood-frame

structure once used to provide water for steam engine operation. It was moved from MacGregor in 1987

to the Manitoba Agricultural Museum in Austin. The municipal designation applies to the building.

The

MacGregor CPR Water Tower (1904) is one of only two surviving examples of the 75 "Standard Number

One Plan" water towers that once served the steam locomotives that powered the expansion of European

settlement in Manitoba. Once gravity-filled from Jackson's Lake, 15 miles west of the Village of

MacGregor, the tower holds a cedar-lined tank with a capacity of nearly 182 thousand litres. The tank

is held 22 feet in the air to provide the pressure needed for rapid filling of locomotives preparing

to embark on the climb up the Manitoba Escarpment. Rendered obsolete by the diesel engine, the tower

served the CPR until 1957. Although it was moved in 1987, the tower retains excellent exterior integrity

and many interior features.

Source: R.M. of North Norfolk By-Law No. 799/2012, 9 April 2013

Key exterior

elements that define the MacGregor Water Tower's utilitarian character and standard CPR design include:

-

its tall narrow octagonal massing with a shallow octagonal roof and concrete foundation

- the horizontal

wood siding, set between vertical corner boards and painted in the standard CPR rusty maroon colour

-

the wood door

- functional features such as the water level indicator, consisting of a sliding ball affixed

to a rooftop pole and connected to a float inside the tank, and the pipe and spout for filling locomotive

boilers

Key interior elements that define the tower's heritage character and railway function include:

-

the open ground floor

- the cedar tank and the framework that supports it, composed of heavy timbers

set upon concrete bases and strengthened with cross-braces

- many of the pipes, valves and controls for

filling and using the tank