I'm assembling a woodland scenic diesel fuel kit. What color is the fuel crane counterweight? Should I keep it shiny or paint it black?
This depends on your railroad. How well do they maintain their stuff. Some timber or mine railroad would not worry about that. A crack class 1 might be very fussy about how their property looks. NYCT doesnt worry about fuel cranes. They probably have one in the 36th street yards, or maybe in the Livonia yard which doesn't even have a third rail.
On a public property (a rail or transit authority) it depends on the politicians and if they are getting enough money to keep things up or are they in a period of defered maintenance.
LION runs a SUBWAY layout and while I have a few diesels for MOW work I do not model the mow yards. 400 trains a day and not a single locomotive in sight.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
In this example everything seems to be painted with aluminum paint and, of course, in the early diesel era, not very old:
rn2-92cr by George Hamlin, on Flickr
Likewise here, aluminum paint:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alcomike/4988624655/in/album-72157711464743198/
Option 2 — all black:
Soo Line - Schiller Park, IL by d.w.davidson, on Flickr
I have the same WS kit and I'm using some of the parts from it.
Fuel_May_EL by Edmund, on Flickr
I am adding the "Snyder Fuel Crane" as a modern (1960s anyway) upgrade.
Fuel_pad by Edmund, on Flickr
I haven't applied the final paint yet. It will probably be a weathered, oil stained aluminum paint, though. Seems like it was the 1980s or so that so many appliances began to get lots of "safety striping" and bright color paint.
https://www.hobbylinc.com/american-limited-snyder-diesel-fuel-crane-kit-pkg2-ho-scale-model-railroad-trackside-structure-5200
The American Limited kit is a little fussy to build but results in a nice, finished model. Be sure to have some spilled fuel and oily muck around:
Oil_Slick by Edmund, on Flickr
My era is pre-EPA, of course.
Good Luck, Ed
Thank you for the reply. Your subway layout is impresive. I've not ridden NYCT since I retired.
Didn't reference any prototype when building my diesel fueling kit.
Regards, Peter
One reason railroads would use aluminum paint would be to show early evidence of leaks. That wouldn't apply to a counterweight, but railroads might be inclined to paint everything at the same time...
During my short time as an oiler during the final months of the PC our fuel cranes were delapitated and some were already replaced with the big red hoses. The pad had about 4 tons of speedy dry and sand almost to the top of the rail head. The cranes that still functioned was a combination of greasy grime, silver, and rust.
One night I was board and grabbed a shovel and wheel barrow out of the maintenance shed and started scooping up the sand/speedy dry mixture. My super saw me and chewed my butt so bad the hole fell out. He said if he got called on the carpet for a labor dispute, I would be in real trouble. Never do somebody else's job. Fill tanks and sand boxes! Sometimes antifreeze. Nothing else. I got cut about a week later. Shortly after that the fueling station was dismantled.
Pete.
I like the all black look. Thank you all for replies and pictures.
The railroads were organized by craft, not by shop, and the Brotherhoods were notorious for how they jealously guarded their territory