Heat guns are WAY hotter than needed for this.
Hair dryer on the lowest setting, or hot water warmed tweezers.
I will have to try the bubble wrap method on a Genesis SD60E that I picked up. Engineer side handrails are perfectly straight - Until right next to the cab, where they suddenly sharply bend inward.... Other side has no issues.
My only ScaleTrains Rivet Counter unit had no issues with the hand railings themselves, but did have a hand grab, the cab corner railing, and a intake cover pop off/break off in shipping. Dot of glue and no one can tell. I have two Genesis units, one no issues with railings, one with.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Hornblower,
If none of these suggestions work, there is an ebay store that I use called sooo-much-stuff that sells replacement Athearn RTR handrails for just about every locomotive in Athearn's line along with parts, shells and handrails for different brands also. I have used this place to purchase handrails for my RTR GP38-2s and shipping is fast and well packaged and all mine came with the ends of the handrails already painted. Hope this helps,
Ralph
oops duplicate deleted.
Do not use a heat gun. Too easy to cause irreversible damage.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Try very hot water instead of a hair dryer or heat gun.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
Thanks for all the suggestions. I was considering trying a hair dryer on these railings but needed to first get the railing in the position I ultimately wanted. Thus, I placed some strips of wood between the hood and railings. I got called away before I could try the heat. When I returned, I accidently knocked one of the wood strips out of position but found that the railing stayed straight! Maybe just retraining the memory of the plastic is the way to go. However, the straightened railings could just creep back into their curled position, too!
Hornblower
PRR8259 Most of the manufacturers have developed the plastic clamshell packaging such that it does not impinge on the handrails anymore.
My newest diesels, a pair of Walthers Proto FM switchers, were incredibly well packaged.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Hi Kevin--
Pre-decorated: Not really. Paint or not painted, does not seem to matter.
Way they are packaged: Absolutely NOT.
Packaging of Athearn Genesis diesels does not touch or impinge on the handrails in any way. Most of the manufacturers have developed the plastic clamshell packaging such that it does not impinge on the handrails anymore.
When handrails are warped or deformed it is often due to the manufacturing factory "rushing" the set time or cooling time in the mold prior to ejection from the mold. Same with Scale Trains. For all the blather about them being "better" than Athearn, they just are not, at least specifically not with regard to handrails. Perhaps they negotiated the set time with the manufacturer, but to save time/money, most manufacturers tend to do what they want to do once the importer leaves. Some importers are perhaps better than others at not accepting inferior products.
Handrails tend to vary from product run to product run with both Athearn and ScaleTrains. Some can be very good, and some not. With Rapido, they vary a bit more even within the very same production run. Some Rapido handrails can be much better than Athearn and ScaleTrains, and some are unfortunately comparable...
If/when I do purchase a Genesis diesel, I stick to the shorter ones as their handrails, being shorter, have a tendency toward not being as deformed as much as the long handrail runs. The Genesis GP7/9 units have for me had the best handrails of any Athearn diesel. I've owned several of them and they have been fantastic. The big long diesels I just don't buy from Athearn anymore.
I'm not going to recommend a particular brand. Everybody buys the diesel units they want for their own personal railroad, and sometimes you are limited regarding what model is made by whom that you can use for your railroad. I feel very fortunate to have found a bunch of engines that I can live with, even to the point that if I buy units off Ebay (which normally is not recommended as they can often be "seconds" ie just not the best models) I can be assured that the ones I'm getting are still going to look good. If it looks acceptable to me, I can usually get it to run well enough.
Disclaimer: I do have one ScaleTrains rivet counter SD40-2 pre-ordered. That would be my first loco purchase from them. I have seen other units that I would buy, but just did not need that particular model or paint scheme at the time. So we'll see how the SD40-2 looks.
John
I am assuming that most of these handrail problems are orginating from pre-decorated models with the handrails installed and the way they are packaged.
My undecorated models come with the handrails not installed yet. These are usually well packaged and flat.
The only real handrail distortion problem I have had to deal with on an HO scale model was a Life-Like Proto-2000 GP where the handrails were packaged bent in the model from the factory. These were not installed on the model.
I fixed this by pressing them between two thin sheets of styrofoam clamped flat for about a week.
I have used bubble wrap to overbend the entire run of Genesis handrail and stanchions. I placed the bubble wrap between the body and the handrails so that the stanchions were all pretty nearly overbent by the same amount, and let the model sit on a basement shelf overnight. By morning, it was enough to alter the "permanent set" of the handrails such that they were much straighter. Sometimes it takes a couple overnight bends to get them better...
This is my main complaint with some manufacturers' diesels. The handrails often suck.
I currently only buy engines whose handrails are very straight. There are certain models where the handrails are very good. My diesel fleet is now almost entirely composed of those models.
I have corrected a handrail cold. You have to overbend it just the right amount in just the right place for just the right amount of time.
Worked, though.
Oh, yeah. I did it with the handrails in place--a convenience.
Ed
Handrails are annoying!
Does it make sense to replace the handrails with wire ones or get more to have?
What Ricky suggested has worked for me and Randy with his N scale diesels.
Good luck, and be careful.
Sometimes a little heat from a hair dryer will be enough to bend them back to shape.
Sometimes....
But go very slowly, and use as little heat as is possible. Once they are warm, push/pull them into correct shape and place, then hold there until cooled.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.
A friend just purchased a near new Athearn RTR GP38-2 at a swap meet. He gave me the loco to install DCC + Sound and an inspection of the model shows that the only repairs needed are to somehow straightend the engineered plastic handrails along the long hood which have both curled inward over much of their length. Is there a reliable way to straighten these handrails or do I need to replace them with OEM or alternate handrails?