HO scale rain gutters

[robsmith_nc]

Thanks all, for the suggestions! I'm going to give a couple of the ideas a try and see what works best for me. I appreciate you saving me all the mouse clicks to find what I'm looking for.

[doctorwayne]

Thanks for the kind words and the warning, Guy.  The structures are back in their respective places, even though the area needs some landscaping and some details.

Wayne

[Guy Papillon]

Wayne,

Nice photos and good explanation as usual. But you should remove those nice houses from the tracks before the next train arrives. 

[dknelson]

robsmith_nc

Anybody know of a good source to purchase, or a good way to make convincing rain gutters and downspouts in HO scale? The commercially available ones I've located so far seem way out of scale.

 

I have used the Micro Engineering gutter and downspout set, which is 255-80163 in the Walthers catalog.  (And it's in stock!  I checked.)   My dial calipers read out in HO inches and feet and the downspouts are 5 inches.  I think that is pretty good.  The gutters read out to 9 inches wide and a bit over 8 inches high.  That is on the big side perhaps but I am not visually troubled by the results, perhaps because I have it on a large apartment building I scratchbuilt rather than an individual residential home.  

 

The Pikestuff downspouts that I have measure out to 2.5 inches by 4 inches.  I think that is very acceptable, at least to me it is, for residential purposes.

 

An outfit called Great West Models makes, or made, downspouts that I measure to 3.5" by 5" - pretty comparable to the Micro Engineering and acceptable looking to me.  DP-106 is the part number.

 

I also have some old fashioned cast iron type downspouts (Drain Wall Piping is what the package says) from Sodders Enterprises.   These are the sorts you'd see on large business buildings perhaps more often than residences, although some old mansions have very large and elaborate drainage systems made of cast iron. 

 

I don't know if Great West Models and Sodders are still in business.  My source for those parts was a vendor who no longer comes to Milwaukee's Trainfest unfortunately.

 

Dave Nelson

[doctorwayne]

Pikestuff offers eavestrough and downspout, which I used on some backround structures like this one...

...but I usually use Evergreen channel for the troughs and rod or strip, in whatever sizes are appropriate for the application, for the downspouts...

You can bend the downspouts using a careful application of heat, but I find it easier to simply cut the material at a suitable angle, then rotate one of the pieces 180° and cement it back together.  I use fine wire to secure the downspouts where needed.

Wayne

[UNCLEBUTCH]

I use evergreen .060 channel, and .047 rod for downspout

[Medina1128]

HO Scale guttering

 

[rrebell]

You could use #90041 plastiruct channel.

[robsmith_nc]

Anybody know of a good source to purchase, or a good way to make convincing rain gutters and downspouts in HO scale? The commercially available ones I've located so far seem way out of scale.