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I have been modeling the NY area in 1950's with my subways, but have strayed a lot and have many inconsistencies as far as time period and location ect. One small area I have changed is the color of my fire hydrant which should be black with a silver top for NYC, Brooklyn and Queens if I am not mistaken. Farther out on Long Island I remember the fire hydrants were red with a silver top. What color is your fire hydrant and what area are you representing?

 

 

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A red hydrant is the classic color. I have on order a more detailed hydrant that comes in all red. I will probably leave that one in red and just add a silver top to it for when I want to run my Oyster Bay LIRR train. After doing some research on hydrants, it seems that they come in many colors and the color has meaning as to what type of water pressure it has and other factors.

Kansas City area has yellow hydrants with a black top. K.C, MO had (and may still have) yellow fire trucks. I was thinking they may have changed back to red, there was talk of it I think, but can't remember how it ended up? Don't get over there too often. I live on the Kansas side (Lenexa) and most all of the surrounding K.C. suburbs have red fire trucks. I believe all the fire hydrants are the same color throughout the area.

Thanks guys for your contributions here. 

 

It seems that many areas don't even have set rules for the color of the hydrant. I saw pictures of a few that are painted red,white and blue. Another had white with black spots to look like a Dalmation dog of all things! So it seems like good old red is the preferred color for modeling whether it is prototypical to an area or not. 

 

So I know I am crazy, but I will have a choice of at least two types of fire hydrants soon depending on my mood and what I will be modeling at the moment.

Mine are painted orange and then slightly weathered. In heavy industrial areas I have put two "crash posts" near the hydrants to prevent trucks,etc from backing in to the hydrants. The hydrants I use are Berkshire Valley.

 

Fortunately, one of my friends who visits frequently is a retired fire marshal and has advised me on colors.

Driving through Jackson, NJ I saw them painting theirs GN Blue with silver top and caps.  My town also has fluorescent poles attached to them so they can be found in the snow and provide better visibility.

 Some towns paint different symbols on the street indicating where the hydrant is when the firemen drive to a site.

 

Be creative.  It's your railroad.

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Painted Fire Hydrant...

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Thingamajig 4

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  • Painted Fire Hydrant...
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Last edited by RichO
Originally Posted by jmiller320:

Fire Hydrants are color coded.  Per NFPA 291.

BLUE1500 GPM or moreVery good flows
GREEN1000-1499 GPMGood for residential areas
ORANGE500-999 GPMMarginally adequate
REDBelow 500 GPMInadequate

Now isn't that interesting. In all my years of traveling around the U.S.A. with various steam locomotives having to take on water from thousands and thousands of hydrants, I have never seen any colors besides red and yellow. Rarely did we encounter a hydrant that would supply up to 1000 GPM.

 

I wonder how many cities & towns actually follow those "recommended" color codes?

Although high rise buildings have sprinkler systems they also have some serious pumps on the fire systems and can move some serious amounts of water. Wonder if the green or blue could be for those types of installations.

 

Not sure I have seen green or blue ones either, but I am going to start paying closer attention to the colors of the ones I do see.

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