What deck material on Vandy tender deck?

[mmagliaro]

On top of a Vanderbilt tender, behind the oil tank, there is the flat platform that goes along the top
of the tender all the way to the tail.  It looks like planks.

Was that platform actually wooden plank?  (Not steel?)

What color was it?  Was it just painted black like the tender, or were the planks stained, maybe with creosote
or some other preservative?  So should they have a dark (almost black, but not black) stained color?

Anybody have some color photos of the top of a prototype Vanderbilt tender?

Thanks for whatever insight you can provide.

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EDIT
Upon further review (digging the web, finding repair accounts where they mention replacing the wood deck
on the tender, some top-down photos of brass models, etc) ... it does indeed look like they were wood.   

Still would be nice to know if they were just painted, or there was some stain used.

[central.vermont]

Max,

I'll go out on the limb on this one and say that I would think that they may have had some type of paint or preservative on them. Also after some time I would think that they would have been stained from the oil spilling onto them also. But you are right in thinking that they are made of wood.

Jon

[superturbine]

Max,
I am sure it would have been some wood treatment process similar to what was being used in the tie processing plant.  Also, if the wood  was simply being painted the tops of the tenders would match the color of the tender.  In most cases the tender decks were black ie UP Grey hound tenders.  I would also suspect that wood was added to prevent water/ ice from standing on the tender deck especially in the winter time(the water would drop between the boards and drain off).

[mmagliaro]

Thanks guys.
That's a great photo, Jason!

Yeah, it makes sense that they would be wood to let water and ice come off easier,
and to allow for better footing, much like they used wood decks on 1940s era
battleships even though the rest of the ship was made of steel.

[nkalanaga]

It would also have been rust-proof, unlike steel running board material.  True, eventually it would rot, but boards are cheap and easy to replace.  Paint would wear quickly, as often as this was walked on, and the steel wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as on a boxcar.  For that matter, even boxcars back then commonly had wooden running boards.