So... in the museums that work outdoors and don't have a shop or carbarns developed yet...

How do you safely access roofs for repairs and painting? Assuming you'll be up there for a bit, and you need to access the whole roof. And presuming the roof is strong enough to walk on. How do you do it safely?

We favor blue tarps...

In reality.. we have set up scaffolding next to the car and lots of ladders.

Randy

We gotthe city safety managers ok first, then worked from a scaffold tower with safety harnesses (a bloomin pain) and as i am only 135 lbs did the roof sealing and repairing on my own, it was nice up there especially with 3985 on test charging past.

Mike Pannell
Cheyenne

We work from scaffold as much as possible, tethered by lanyards if we must venture away from the security of railings.

In our area, quite a few industries have a row of poles in areas where workers are up on tank cars or covered hoppers. These poles have crossarms which support a strong steel cable above the track centerline- usually one pole will serve two parallel tracks. The workers clip their lanyards onto the steel cable.

This seems to be the most sensible approach, and need not be too expensive.

If you have a friendly local utility company or live in a logging area, the poles and installation might even be free. Your friendly utility company's boom truck or a rented manlift would be the safest way to install and tighten the steel cable.

Here's one commercial system that illustrates the idea:

http://www.horizontal-lifeline.com/evolution_200_horizontal_lifeline.htm

Note, in some jurisdictions you may require an engineer's approval of your plans for regulatory purposes, and to cover yourself in case somebody finds a way to fall in spite of all your best efforts.

(edited for link)

Steve Hunter