On Oct 24, 2008, at 7:40 PM, Jack Burgess wrote:

I'm in the process of painting a model of a Western air operated
side dump
car. These cars had an air cylinder on each side of the frame to
raise the
body for dumping. My question...should the piston rod coming out of
these
air cylinders be a "shiny" steel color similar to the steel piston
rods you
see on hydraulic construction equipment such as backhoes or some other
color?

Jack, in the photos I have of air dump cars, the shiny piston rods
are only visible when they are extended in order to tip the dump
body, not when they are in the normal position with the body level.

Richard Hendrickson