Walthers used to have milled wood air conditioning ducts for heavyweight passenger cars. (They also had two types of clerestory roof stock available.) Northeastern now has the higher of the two clerestory roof stocks but no longer lists the AC ducts. Is there another source? Thanks! (This is for my Pullman stretching thread.)
It's supposedly out-of-stock at Walthers, but I'd order direct from New England Rail Service. They offer duct work for the Rivarossi cars, but I believe that it also will fit the Athearn cars, too.
It comes as a long piece, which the modeller cuts to suit, with two pairs of ends, and is a perfect fit for the Rivarossi cars.
Here's some on a Rivarossi car...
Depending on how you cut it (or not), you can accumulate extra ends, which will allow you to create the duct from .010" sheet styrene, and use the leftover ends.
This duct on this business car, built from a shortened Athearn observation, was formed from .010" styrene, as were the ends....
I can't seem to find a direct link to NERS, but they also offer a lot of underbody details for passenger cars. You can view some of them HERE
Wayne
Thanks! I went to the Hobbylinc site and they show it as being discontinued and not available. How did you form yours from .010 styrene? Heat it and form it around a tube of some sort?
Just looked for it on Ebay. Seems to be a nice kit with what appears to be all the underbody workings as well. But, it's a bit pricy for me and the car I'm working on. I had some of the old Walthers stuff but it's on a Rivarossi car now. Maybe I can cut up some pine or a dowel. Hmmm...
Just took one of my old circle templates and sighted through it and down the length of my Rivarossi car. Looks like 5/8" diameter. Think I'll plan a trip to the Depot tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.
Please do keep us posted, and share pictures if you can.
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-Kevin
Living the dream.
I have added New England Rail Service AC ducts to several Rivarossi heavyweights. The arc on those is very close to 5/8 diameter. Sadly, they are no longer available. Also, I’ve added AC ducts to some old wood roof Walthers kit cars using strip wood from craft stores with some sanding and some wood filler. I tried making ducts from .010 styrene but failed. I could not form it in that 5/8 arc. I’m now trying to build a fixture to cut arc strips from a plastic tube that is very close to 5/8 ID having a thin wall These tubes I saw in a craft store in cake decorating section. They are columns about 12 inches long to be cut to support wedding cake tiers. I cut a short arc strip free hand from one with a box cutter and it does fit the clerestory arc very well And is very close to shape of NERS duct. So it will work. I need to build my fixture to cut very straight long arc strips. I love messing with my fleet of old heavyweights.
Railroads built these ad-lib. You can too. You make them out of modeling clay. You smooth them until they look right, and then you paiant the.
LION can not see the point of buying things when they are just so easy to craft for yourself.
ROAR
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Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
stevetx...I tried making ducts from .010 styrene but failed. I could not form it in that 5/8 arc.....
I ran into similar problems, but solved them by cutting the .010" material into shorter lengths, about 7' HO, as measured on the business car which I posted earlier. It's much easier to impart the curve to the shorter length. The real ones were not one-piece items either.While it's been many years since that car was done, I do recall that I first cemented a piece of strip styrene, probably .060"x.060" or .080"x.080" to the side of the clerestory, immediately below the very slight overhang of the clerestory roof.The procedure was then to first determine the width of the .010" sheet material needed to reach from the top of the car's rivet strip at the eaves to the edge of the clerestory roof, taking into account the arc of the curve.To do this, cut a a short length of .010" sheet, and wrap it around the handle of your X-acto knife or something similar, then manually force it into what looks like the proper curve. Try it in place, then trim as required. When the fit is good and the curve looks to be proper, re-straighten the test piece and write down that eave-to-clerestory dimension...that way, you'll be able to easily duplicate it on other Athearn cars. If you have other manufacturer's cars, you'll likely have to go through the test procedure for them, too, but once the sizes have been recorded, it becomes a simple job.
To install the duct segments, I first pre-curved them, then used solvent-type cement to affix them only at the car's eaves. Let that joint harden completely...overnight, if necessary, then cement the top to the previously-applied strip material on the sides of the clerestory. If necessary place something (non-styrene) over that connection, and secure it with rubber bands, again leaving it until the bond has hardened - the better you're able to pre-form the curve, the less likely the need for such clamping.
For doing the ends of the ducts, I went with the give-it-a-try method, and when it looked reasonable, that was good enough. The ends mid-car are probably easier to make than those at the end of the clerestory, as the latter should match both the curve of the duct and that of the clerestory end.
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Mike.
My You Tube
Went to a big "train show" yesterday and found a $10 set of the NERS ducts. I also found a couple scraps of the wood stock I used when I added ducts to a Rivarossi car. I'm planning on wrapping thin paper around the "mid car" duct ends and then cutting them our of .010 styrene and try to form them shape. And, I'll try to do the same with .010 styrene for the ducts them selves. Thanks for all the help you've all been!
I had some ducks for my trains but the city came by and took them away. Apparently my layout is not zoned for ducks.