Got yet another one for my Forum friends: What kind of stirrup steps are on this car (http://chuckzeiler.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4549021) and does anyone make them in HO scale? They seem to be a non-standard and I am a bit confused.
As usual any help that can be provided would be most welcomed.
The right one looks bent. Aline B&C stirrups look a liitle bit like it and more so with some careful bending. Or you could make a jig with piano wire and a piece of wood and make your own out of phosphor bronze wire
https://ppw-aline.com/collections/freight-car-stirrup-sets
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
When you take a random click on the 6 pages of CB&Q box cars, you see all styles.
This picture shows 3 different styles in one picture.
This image has a share button, for emailing and FaceBook, so I guess it's OK to post it.
Mike.
My You Tube
FRRYKid....What kind of stirrup steps are on this car (http://chuckzeiler.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4549021) and does anyone make them in HO scale?....
I've seen that style on some plastic kit cars, mainly from Accurail, I think. They're cast as part of the bodyshell, but they may also come with some Intermountain or Red Caboose kits, as separate add-on detail parts. If so, they're likely cast in styrene, so are not too durable.
A-Line offers three styles of sill steps, bent from phosphor-bronze bar stock:
Type A, as shown on this Sylvan boxcar...
....Type B, as on this Red Caboose car...
...and Type C, as seen here on the right end of this Walthers' car....
You could make your own in that style though. While the photos below deal with steps for passenger cars, the ones in your photo would require no soldering, simply a form (made from wood or styrene) that would ensure that all steps turn out exactly the same.For doing the passenger car steps, I use flat brass bar, .010"x.030", from Detail Associates. It's easy to bend and reasonably durable. After you've made the form, bend, working from one end of the stock material, the step, and when it's done, remove it from the form and straighten it out and measure it. Write that measurement on the form or somewhere where it can be easily found, and then you'll know exactly how much material to cut from the strip for each step - no point in wasting material.
My form is mostly for baggage and express cars, with common three widths. I have the various material lengths recorded in a book full of such data, and usually mass produce these steps so I have a good supply on-hand when I start a project...
Here are similar steps installed on a baggage car (formerly an Athearn coach)...
Wayne
That Sill Step (Not Stirrup) was one almost exclusively by the Great Northern Railway, which was why Wayne saw them on an Accurail car, that car was the 40' Double Door Box, which was a Great Northern Prototype car originally molded by McKeen Models and accquired by Accurail.
Staffen Enbom had a number of articles in Mainline Modeler Magazine where he showed how to bend these sill steps.
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
You might want to investigate the selection of freight car parts offered in HO by www.yarmouthmodelworks.com if you need to replace broken stirrup steps, ladders,etc. The parts are phosphor bronze and excellent for replacing the plastic ones that are extremely fragile.
What do you folks think of these: https://www.walthers.com/freight-car-stirrups-side-mount-pkg-8-slant-13-1-2-x-13-quot-empty or https://www.walthers.com/freight-car-stirrups-side-mount-pkg-8-slant-13-1-2-x-13-quot-empty? They may not be exact but would they be reasonable subs?
It's your call, but I think they would be fine. You could even widen them more, and maybe even distort a bit, to get the look of the bent up prototype.
FRRYKidWhat do you folks think of these....
Those Detail Associates steps are made of Delrin or a similar type of engineering plastic. Because they're flexible, they'll stand up to some knocks and bumps, but if you wish to paint them, you'll need paint intended for acetal plastics, as most regular model paint doesn't stick well to that type of plastic.They're also intended to be mounted on the face of the car's sills, which means you'll need to drill two suitably-sized holes for each step. While I've used them in the past, it's difficult to keep them in place if they get bumped, as there's not many glues which will stick to that plastic either. The only ones I've heard of are rather expensive, although someone else may be able to provide other options for fastening the steps in place. While the Detail Associates ones are finely done, I've replaced most of mine with metal ones, either from A-Line or homemade.
Would something like Plastruct's Plastic Weld work to glue those steps onto a styrene box car shell? Given that it bonds dissimilar plastics, it seems reasonable.
I'm not familiar with that stuff, so can't really say if it'll work or not. Most engineering plastic isn't affected by most solvent-type cements. The expensive ones to which I referred are known as Cyanopoxy, and are a combination of Cyanoacrylate (ca) and epoxy - supposedly will bond just about anything.
I do recall someone on this Forum mentioning a product from Loctite which apparently has similar properties.
Ordinary thin ca will probably hold them in place if the mounting pins of the steps are a nice tight fit in the holes - it won't really cement them in place, but will tighten the fit by filling any minor gaps - a "created" interference fit, you might call it.
FRRYKid Plastruct's Plastic Weld
I use that, along with CA. Actually I use MEK, which is like the plastic weld. I think if you drill holes for the mounting pins on the steps, you could use the plastic weld, but I'd probably seal the deal with a spot of CA.
I see the prototype in the picture you posted has surface mounted stirrups, along with the pictures I posted, just went back and looked.
I should have looked closer to the link you provided for the stirrups your going to use, Dr. Wayne pointed out they were the deltin plastic, I assumed they were a metal part, ooops!
I've never tried the Loctite stuff, I thought that was a CA too.
If you decide to make your own, staples are a material source, they are typically flat pieces of metal also.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com