Safety cages on ladders in ww2 period?

Hello! I’m building a diorama from battle of Stalingrad. It will be a ruined factory building. I would like to add a ladder with a safety cage. I am asking if it would be realistic in this time period and if safety cages where used in these times. Thanks in advance!

I think you’ll have to be the judge of this. After looking at a number of tank factory photos, I couldn’t find any ladders with safety cages on them. However, the absence of proof is no proof of the total absence - just not visible in any of the selected photos.

(Also, of course, these are all tank factories and not tractor factories, but heavy industry is heavy industry.)

To start, this website has a lot of very nice, good resolution photos of British, US and Japanese WWII tank factories for comparison with the photos below of Soviet factories. Lots more commonalities than differences, it would seem.

Tank Factories in the Second World War

And now some photos of Soviet factories…

Soviet Tank Factory WWII 005

BTW, this last photo is of the actual Stalingrad tractor factory.

By way of comparison, here’re some modern happy snaps of the former Soviet Karkov tank factory.

Soviet Tank Factory Karkov 001 Soviet Tank Factory Karkov 002 Soviet Tank Factory Karkov 003

Hmmm…not many ladders anywhere in evidence, but some metal stairs with railings, and cat walks.
:smiley:

There do seem to be some ladders up the vertical columns in the second photo of the KV factory. These appear to run up from the floor to the two sets of “crows nest” cat-walks around each column. Even these are pretty indistinct and hard to see.

However, aside from those, I can’t find any ladders. Stairs seem to be much more common, though.

Hmmm…yes, now I see them. They are very short lengths (maybe 8 ft?) and wouldn’t need safety cages.
:smiley:

Anything usually safety related began with the US taking the lead…which resulted with OSHA being founded in 1970. Even in the US, cages were not normal. It took another 30 years for them to become ‘normal’, or built to code. Foreign countries do not follow OSHA, most could give a shift about safety. Don’t worry about cages for WW2, IMHO.

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I would agree with John. And remember the soviets weren’t noted for their approach to worker (or anyones) safety, particularly in areas of the plannned ecomony, which something like a tractor zavod would certainly have sat.

Why waste iron on safety cages for ladders, production quotas need to be fulfilled …

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Thanks for fast replies! I guess you’re right and they were not usef as safety wouldn’t be as much concern, especially in soviet union.

“Safety cages” just don’t sound very Russian… :thinking:

They had plenty of cages though, big and small, but they didn’t have many ladders in them.
People yes, ladders no …

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