Just looking at the photo, it looks like the sanding towers… sans concrete footing, is made of some type metal and should be painted such…
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3182
is this correct and were all such structures made of metal?
JaRRell
This one is a metal tower on a concrete base. I have seen them painted lots of colors(black/aluminum/green/etc…). Some are completely concrete, some older ones have a square wood ‘box’ on top of the tower.
Jim
Jarrell,
I have this exact kit on my layout. I believe the frame on this type of tower would have been made from some kind of cast metal - like iron. The container for the sand, obviously, needed to be water tight for the sand to stay bone dry, in order to flow properly. I have mine painted in a grimy black.
Tom
JaRRell
Most sanding towers that I have seen has been made of steel and painted. Then there are some with wood hoppers, Concrete hoppers and such. The most important thing the tower needs to do is keep the sand dry. Wet sand does not flow very good. I have seen pictures of two bay covered hoppers and old tank cars raised about 15 feet in the air and filled with sand for locomotives.
Pete
Jarrell:
Like Tom, I too have the sanding tower–the older steam one–in my engine terminal. I gave it a light dusting of grimy black. I keep it REALLY busy with my articulateds, LOL!
Tom [:)]
Feh. $26 for a couple of bits of plastic… Walther’s drives me crazy. Here’s mine…
I used about $4 worth of Plastruct, a ladder, some scrap railings from a Bachmann signal bridge, and a G-scale milk can. The fuel racks are clipped telegraph poles standing in Micro Trains bolsters.
That’s why I don’t mind paying $20 for decoders! I can’t make them myself!!
Lee
Sometimes compressed air is used to send sand from ground level through a hose to the loco’s sand box.
Some layouts might be better off if they eschewed sanding towers and settled for a shed with a ladder and buckets nearby.
Mark
Mark:
Good point. I think that’s how they sanded down the locos on the Nevada County Narrow Guage at the terminal in Nevada City. At least that’s the answer I got from one of the ‘old timers’ some years ago when I asked him.
Tom
Or a track next to the service track with a boxcar load of sand and buckets.
The ultimate sand “tower” is at N Platte’s eastbound run throughs. There is a service track to inspect and fuel the locomotives and an overhead crane, only instead of a crane its a sanding tank. It can travel the length of the service track and can go side to side over all six tracks sanding engines. Its the yellow thing in the google maps picture below.