Railway Water Towers in Szolnok

Abstract

The industrial water towers built by the railway companies at the end of the 19th century predated the first generation of municipal public supply towers in most towns of Hungary. This paper focuses on the town of Szolnok, the principal station on the Pest-Szolnok railway line. As the third railway track of the country, it was opened to public steam locomotive transportation in 1847. It was a water station where the locomotives´ tanks were refilled with water from an elevated reservoir. Although in a ramshackle state, one of Szolnok´s railway water towers still remains, awaiting a well-deserved renovation. This listed industrial monument bears an Intze Type I tank of which only a few have survived in the country. A photodocumentation presents a newly discovered, Intze Type II railway tower the vicissitudes of which are also traced through written documents. By the demolition of this latter one in the middle of the 20th century the era of historicism in the architecture of railway buildings has come to an end. New utilitarian railway water tower types of reinforced concrete were created throughout the country, an example of which was also constructed in Szolnok.