Does anyone have a good way to fabricate curved stairways/ladders up the sides of storage tanks? I’m in HO but techniques in any gage are appreciated. Ball-shaped tanks like used for LPG are a partricular challenge.
Chuck
The cylindrical ladders/ stairs could be a problem but on smaller tanks you could put safety caged ladders like these.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3515
Walkways could be scrach built or kitbashed.
Or how about kitbashing something from a fire escape kit.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3729
Just some ideas.
Pete
Last year I built a Walthers 500,000 gal fuel tank for our club layout; it had a curved stairs that possibly could be replicated using a Central Valley #1602 Steps & Ladders Set
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/210-1602
IN the picture, the steps on the upper left could be used. You will have to clip / trim every riser on one side so the steps will curve. You may have to heat the steps in warm water to get them to bend without breaking (the plastic used the Walthers steps were very flexible).
For some reason Central Valley did not include industrial style pipe railings in this set; they are in the #1601Fences & Railings Set, the railing on the lower right in the picture
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/210-1601
If it works, post a photo! [:D]
The caged ladders should work well on smaller cylindrical tanks. I wonder if the fire escape stairways could be “notched” to curve sideways up the side of a larger tank. Think I’ll order a couple sets of each to experiment with. Thanks, Pete.
George - I hadn’t seen the Central Valley parts before - think I’ll get some of those to try also. Thanks.
They are a good quality product; I have used them a lot to make industrial platforms and stairways.
I forgot to mention that the inboard side of the stairs would have to be clipped off flush with the riser (the one that gets trimmed); the remaining bits of riser would be used as a gluing base onto the tank.
The Tichy Train Group Oil Tank has stairways with the steps connected only on one side which allows them to wrap around the tank. There are no pins on the stairs to insert into the tank, so you have to cement, or CA, them to the to the tank a few at a time and carefully secure them while the adhesive sets. It has been a few years since I assembled them, so I am not sure, but I think I used masking tape. If you cement them, use CA to fill the gaps between the steps (straight edge) and the curved tank.
I am thinking about scratch building some spherical storage tanks. I am not looking forward to trying to get the stairs to wrap around those.
I’ll be ordering some of the above materials this weekend and I’ll see what I can do. I’ll post some photos when I get something that looks decent. Thanks, guys.
I know my walther oil storage tanks came with ladder with the kit. My question is Did your kit come with them too.
