Denison, Iowa - My First Coulee Top

The only type of tank I haven't done yet on this hitch is called a Coulee Top.  We tried to do one about a month ago, but there were cell towers on it and had the utility reschedule. 

A Coulee Top is an older tank with a steep roof.  They are often Circa 1920-1930 (sometimes older), and several don't have modern safety features. 

This tank had a ladder with a fall cage, but no other fall protection.  Fortunately, the tower was only about 90 feet tall (total). 

Staging the gear on the roof was very challenging.  For towers, we use a pully system to pull our gear up to the catwalk, then I go up to the top of the tank and pull all of the gear from the catwalk to the top of the tank (near the hatch).  A Coulee Top has a  lip that overhangs the side of the tank by 12-18", so gear has a bad habit of getting caught under that lip.  Once a piece of gear is on top of the tank, there is no level space to stage it, so everything must be tied off to whatever is available (in this case it was the ladder) to keep it from sliding off the roof. 

This was a challenging tank... probably the most difficult setup I've done so far.  The sun was beating down on us with 97 degree temperatures (the heat index was around 110) and very high humidity.  Much like the reservoir we worked on in Hanna, Wyoming, I couldn't wait for this one to be done.  We were done around 1:30 and drove 90 miles back to Boone.

This tower is a very large Coulee Top.  They are usually much smaller and lack any modern safety features.

The top of a Coulee Top tank is very steep.  There are no flat areas to set gear - everything must be tied off to the ladder.

Looking down at the catwalk from the top of the tank.

The roof of the Coulee Top extends over the side walls of the tank, so it is necessary to feed the down line over the last ladder rung when pulling up gear to avoid rubbing the line on a sharp edge and possibly dropping 10-50 lbs of gear.

Looking at a hydropillar off in the distance.  I would have preferred working on the hydropillar instead of the Coulee Top.

We went out to Golden Corral for dinner after completing the tank.  This caboose was in the parking lot.  I love trains.