Fixing the water tower for the Milwaukee County Zoo's steam locomotives puts student designers to the test

Given the challenge of designing a new water tower for the Milwaukee County Zoo's steam trains, Bay View High School seniors Ee Thao and Maisee Lor decided to think outside the box. 

Or rather outside the tower.

While other high school teams devised sturdy platforms and tanks made from a variety of materials, Thao and Lor proposed leaving the current decades-old water tower where it is and using an underwater system to catch rainwater and recycle it to help power the zoo's two steam trains.

While researching the problem, Thao and Lor learned of parking lots that collect rainwater and wondered if that technology could be used at the zoo, especially since a city sewer is already at the location.

"Initially we were so focused on making the water tower more efficient but because city water is expensive, we began looking for other water sources," Lor said.

While their idea might never get used, Thao and Lor are learning valuable real-world lessons in engineering, design and science. That's precisely the goal of an innovative partnership between local schools and colleges, the zoo, Learn Deep Milwaukee and the Coalition for Sustainable Rail.

The STEM education program is centered around the zoo's steam and diesel trains with the first project focusing on ways to replace the water tower.

At a conceptual design review Monday at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, teams from six area high schools shared their ideas with other students and panels of experts. In spring the teams will complete detailed designs that will be presented at an event at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in May. One design will be chosen.

That will be followed by detailed engineering during a summer boot camp, and schools will fabricate the parts next fall for installation in spring 2020. Also during the fall, the next phase of the project will begin with design and fabrication of an automated coal handling system for the trains.

The zoo's locomotives

The Milwaukee County Zoo's two steam locomotives are about one-quarter the size of a large engine and burn 6 to 8 tons of coal each season. The zoo also operates two diesel locomotives.

The steam locomotives use about 12 gallons of water per 10-minute trip around the zoo, said zoo train engineer Ken Ristow. On average, that's 250 gallons of water each day, more when both steam engines are running on busy days.

Participating in the program are high school students from Bay View, New Berlin, Elmbrook, Carmen, Franklin and Menomonee Falls. Higher education partners are MSOE, UWM, Marquette, Milwaukee Area Technical College and Waukesha County Technical College.

The driving vision of the effort is for Milwaukee area students to design and fabricate an advanced steam locomotive powered with renewable fuels. But since that's a big challenge, students will complete projects of increasing complexity with the zoo's train over the next few years.

Pete Reynolds and Joost Allard from Learn Deep Milwaukee said the program aims to give STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students the opportunity to work on meaningful projects. When a representative from the Coalition for Sustainable Rail, which has already experimented on renewable biofuels on the Milwaukee County Zoo's trains, suggested students develop new train boiler designs, officials decided to start with the water tower.

"When people talk about redesigning a train boiler, we know that most students are not ready for that type of engineering," Allard said. "There's no lack of interest on the teacher side, it's 'how do I fit it into my program and what are my students ready for?'"

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Some teams used models made of plastic or cardboard or wooden tongue depressors; all used PowerPoint programs to show their ideas ranging from stress analysis and dimensions of water tower base, tank and concrete pads to costs and designs for interactive educational signs to be installed near the tower.

Ristow was impressed with the students' ideas.

"I've seen diverse designs from a diverse group of kids," Ristow said. "It's providing us with something we need but giving these students a chance to learn and design something that's unique and they can be proud of looking at 40 years from now."

Natalie Harms and Kiersten Prom, both Menomonee Falls High School seniors, have worked on the design, which is their STEM Academy capstone project, since October and will continue through the end of the school year.

Both have ridden the zoo train since they were young and are excited to be a part of a cool project that could last for decades.

"This water tower could be here for my kids and grandkids," Prom said.