Where can I find rubber HO air hoses? I bought a model recently that had them, obviously installed by the prior owner and not by the factory, so I suspect they are/were available somewhere. Mr Google has thus far been unable to help locate any.
Hi and —
I had heard of these things:
I never gave it much consideration but I guess some modern modelers, where because of extended underframes, the air lines are more predominant, might want something like this.
There's this, too, from Hi-Tech Details:
https://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/hth/hth6036.htm
In the "You Might Also Like" section on the Hobbylinc page there are several other choices of air/MU hose.
I'll sometimes apply the Kadee rigid plastic ones. It doesn't bother me that they are not made of softer material.
Good Luck, Ed
Hi-Tech Details:https://www.hitechdetails.com/AAR_Hoses.html
I use the Cal-Scale plastic (I assume) air hoses and they can be bent to shape. (Cal-Scale also makes cast brass air hoses or did at one time.)
By the way "real" air hoses are not all that flexible either.
Dave Nelson.
As usual Ed comes up with a better answer by the time I've even seen the question.
I would only add that the rubber used here is a bit like the plastic used to 'fatten' truck springs to look prototypical. It has to be comparatively soft to get the right characteristics, and that can make them a bit wiggly if not properly formed initially. What I found is that the hoses benefit from being a bit anisotropic: they can be relatively stiff in vertical profile, to make magnetic coupling a bit more straightforward, but have to be soft 'laterally' to keep from contributing to push derailment... this can be crudely approximated by 'pivoting' the hoses where they attach to the carbody, and using a vertical formed spring inside the rubber to give them shapability that then 'holds'. This did look a little weird when the cars were uncoupled, and the current solution is probably better in any practical respect.
I have kicked around using #30 AGW Silicon Superfelx wire, pull the wire out of the insulation and using the insulation as hose. The outside diameter of the wire is .8mm/.03” equivalent to 2¾” HO scale.Then using 2mm diameter x 1mm thick magnets for hose couplings. There is a problem, the cars would become polarized or directional. North pole magnet on one end to south pole magnets on the other end. MelMy Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
There is a company adding rubber hoses to their boxcars moloco is the name try them
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
dh28473 There is a company adding rubber hoses to their boxcars moloco is the name try them
https://www.molocotrains.com/collections/parts/products/0307
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
If only the big trains had air hoses that coupled up by themselves.
Real-life brakemen and car inspectors would be smiling all day long!