I’m in the process of assembling an N scale Stewart sanding tower and have some questions for any of you that have build one of these things before. The 2 hoses that come off the side arm(s) seem to be too close together. The instruction insert shows the track going in between 2 long hoses but that’s not physically possible. There isn’t enough room for a locomotive to fit in between. Am I missing something here? Should the hoses be short enough so that a loco can go under them? Maybe one short and one long? If so, which one should be short? (Inner or outer hose) . I did a Google search and see that many locomotives take on sand via a port on the top of the nose in front of the cab. Is there another port towards the rear of a locomotive that would require a longer hose to service? 99% of my fleet is EMD/GE power 70s to present. Thanks for any advice and or pictures of your sanding towers. Brian
Brian, I have assembled 3 of these kits and I knwo what your frustration is. I too had a similar problem. The instrustions are not really that clear on hos to assemble the kit. So I actually ruined the first kit during the assembly of the hoses. One the kits I built I made my hoses the same length, about 3 ft short of the ground (maybe that was too long). But as long as it looks proportional to you then you should be okay. One thing I did was the nub on the top of the arm that goes into the bottom of the sand reservoir, I sanded that completely off. I then drilled a small hole in the top of the arms just slightly bigger than .005" I then drilled the same size hole in the bottom of the reservoir. I epoxied a small piece of .005" ferous bronze rod (brass would work too) into the reservoir and then installed the arms. The difference is well worth it! Hope this helps. Ryan
Yah I know what you mean re. the tops of the arms. I sanded mine off at a 45 deg angle. That's the only way I could get them to look like they belonged there. It gave me a larger gluing sruface as well. So if you made both hoses longer (3 ft from the ground) do you hold them out of the way of an oncoming locomotive with some kind of securing rope? It looks like mine would just clear the sides of a gp-40 front hood and then scrape along the side of the cab. Brian
A picture says a 1000 words eh? Here's what my problem is. Just not enough clearance between the 2 hoses. Maybe if I just lopped of the inside hose connection lug and drilled a new one about 2mm cloer to the tower that'd give me enough clearance. Brian
I think what I also did with the ones I put on my dads layout was I glued the inside hose to the upright. As if there was a bracket or something there to attach it to. I know that is not how they are supposed to be in real life, but it is our RR right? I am going to be down there this weekend. I will see if I can snap a picture or 2 when I am down there.
Hi, Brian. I looked up a pic of the sand tower you seem to have. Though can't be sure, looks like your tower is set up for hoses on each side of the locos...not uncommon, particularly in the days of E, F, FA, and other "Covered-Wagon" car-body units. Most had sand fillers on each side, making a single center filler hose problematic. Conrail's inbound process line (200+ units/day) and Kiski Jct. (10+ units/day) both had towers with THREE hoses - each side of the track, and centered over the fillers on hood units. The height of the delivery pipes seems low, too. I'd recommend raising the whole tower on a "concrete" base, enough to at least gain man-clearance between the pipes and the loco roof, modify the hose/pipe attachments to spread the hoses for your engines (hoses were often tied back with chains to convenient supports when not in use) and add a center hose long enough to reach the rear hood sand filler (round or square "lid" at the top rear of the hood), from the joint of the two pipes, then, tie it to the side (like the others) out of the way of the engines/crew. Service crews usually kept short extensions - hose or ducting - to "adjust" the hoses to odd filler locations. If you don't have side filler units, the side hoses need be only long enough to reach the low nose or Wide Cab nose boxes. Hope that's more helpful than confusing...for reference, here are some photos (CRHS) of some facilities, for ideas: http://thecrhs.org/ConrailFacilities/ConrailEngineTerminals Happy bashing !!! Bob C.
Hi Bob, Thanks for the info! The link was great for ideas!! The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning toward canning the stock arms and bashing a set that will fit reality a bit more. (at least my version of reality). As you mentioned the whole thing seemed a bit low. Raising the whole thing up a few feet will be a must. I see the new arms as having 3 hoses as you refer to. 2 long hoses (one on each side) to service my growing F and E series units, and a 3rd for all the other cab units. Time to get the creative juices flowing agian. If it turns out to be something worth showing I'll post a pic or 2. Brian
Brian, Like you, I found the kit underwhelming. Instead, my layout received a tower built primarily from styrene. Brass wire was the best choice for the arms. It is super-glued into holes drilled in the styrene. Here's an unpainted view. Here's the final product in place. I elected not to model the flexible hoses. Perhaps there is something here you can use.
Hi Pachy, I had seen your sanding tower pics before and really liked them. Until now I was hoping to salvage the Stewart arms. I think your scratch build has aspects that I can use. I really want the hoses attached so will need a way to secure them to the ends of the tubes as well as a way to secure a center hose out of the way. That shouldn't be a problem now that I see what can be done with some readaly available parts. Thanks for the pics. Brian
OK so I've been goofing around with building a sanding tower that fits a bit better. Here's what I've come up with so far: I thought the diameters of a ballpoint pen seemed about right for the tower. I glued a small piece of styrene on the top for a lid. Next I figured out a good height. Here are the delivery arms. I added a center arm but not sure if I like how I attached it. That may change but I'm not sure yet how. Here it is ready for paint. I will attach the ladder and arm rigging after that. Hopefully I'll have a complete picture tonight depending on if it stops raining long enough to get a good shot of primer on it. Brian
Well here it is. The Hoses are still a bit funky. The original Stewart instructions said to slide the included wire into the hoses to keep them straight however the included wire was basically the same diameter as the hoses! No way it'd ever fit inside. I used a smaller wire but it doesn't quite have enough stiffness to keep the hoses straight. I may have overdone the hose spacing a bit but that's better than the way it originally was. At least its useable now. Now I need to get of my duff and start in on building the darn yard so I have somewhere to put this little guy!!! Brian
Thanks for the tip Cwwrman, I will look for some of that. I want to make some grab irons to extend above the ladder also so may try to use the bronze wire for that too. The copper strands I used for straightening the down tubes was just too soft to make grab irons out of. Brian
