I'm scratchbuilding a water tank and just got stuck: what color were the hoops on the tank? Were they painted black or were they just rust colored?
Also, does anyone know exactly how the Grandt Line hoop fasteners get attached? I keep staring at them and can't figure out how they're supposed to work.
Thanks!
-Gerry Leone
=>I'm scratchbuilding a water tank and just got stuck: what color were the =>hoops on the tank? Were they painted black or were they just rust colored?
When new, some were painted black, others were painted the same colour as the tank. Eventually, they rusted. But just how rusty they got depended on the rialroad's maintenance policies. I'm afraid you'll have to check the specific prototype you're modelling. The most likely colour is the tank's colour, with some rust. Most of the photo's I've got show the bands as being the same colour as the tank.
HTH
Wolf Kirchmeir ................................. If you didn't want to go to Chicago, why did you get on this train? (Garrison Keillor)
Grandt #48 hoop fasteners are intended to be welded to one end of the wire and the other end threaded. The installation on a model is just to apply over the wire where they are joined to both hide the joint and to model the adjustment part of the ends. The bands are usually painted and are often painted black although some other color may be used as determined by the management of the railroad.
-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works evevery time it is tried!
Gerry, I've only recall seeing one railroad water tank up close when I was a kid tagging along with my Dad looking for steam locomotives still at work. My father took a picture of it and it had turnbuckles holding the hoops together. I don't recall where it was but I think it may have been a tank used by narrow gauge D&RGW locomotives. The hoops were totally rusted except for a few spots of what might have been black paint or just dark dirt.
The Grant Line fasteners can be fitted over the hoop after it is on the tank. If you look at them real close there is a tiny groove in them. To get them to sit flush over the hoop you may have to use a very small file to enlarge the grove. I have almost completed a scratch built tank for my Terrell TX locomotive facilities and the hoops with Grandt Line fasteners have been painted and installed. My hoops are black with rust dry brushed on. Stagger your fasteners from each other so that the uppermost fastener is more or less over the water spout and that lowest one is 90 degrees to the left. I'm sure there are other fastener arrangements but I've seen this in several pictures and on the tank with turnbuckles. If it would help I could send you a picture of my tank as my wife brought home the digital camera from work for the Holidays. Its a Sony and looks like a really nice camera so I would think it could do a decent close up. Bruce
There is a water tank at Cass, WV that is used every season for the tourist railroad. To the best of my knowledge no one EVER painted the hoops.
They were delivered as blackened steel bands and thats the way they stayed until they need to be replaced, which hasn't occurred in my memory.
(bands they are, but they look more like black pipe)
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