chutton01 Is the last image of the updated end railing? Close up, the leftmost solder joint looks good, as does the 2nd from the right (maybe a little filing is needed). The far right solder joint looks wonky - do you want it to look like that?
Is the last image of the updated end railing? Close up, the leftmost solder joint looks good, as does the 2nd from the right (maybe a little filing is needed). The far right solder joint looks wonky - do you want it to look like that?
If you are not skilled with soldering and/or you have arthritic fingers, there are alternatives. There are several sources for purchasing detail parts like handrails. You could also make a mold and cast the handrails in sufficient quantities. Those brake wheels do pose special problems in terms of scratch building but, again, brake wheels can be purchased as detail parts.
Rich
Alton Junction
Given the fact that all of my fingers have advanced osteoarthritis and I can barely hold on to anything without dropping it, I am delighted with this end railing and all its imperfections that will eventually add to the well-used weathered and battered look. Working on the other end of the car now.
chutton01 Is the last image of the updated end railing? Close up, the leftmost solder joint looks good, as does the 2nd from the right (maybe a little filing is needed). The far right solder joint looks wonky - do you want it to look like that?BTW are you hand-brush painting the craft paint - surface looks a bit rough. No good matches in the Glorious Rust-o-Leum spray range? Air-brush craft paint is doable an can be make to look good, but needs prep work and thinning (e.g. Liquitext AB Medium).
Is the last image of the updated end railing? Close up, the leftmost solder joint looks good, as does the 2nd from the right (maybe a little filing is needed). The far right solder joint looks wonky - do you want it to look like that?BTW are you hand-brush painting the craft paint - surface looks a bit rough. No good matches in the Glorious Rust-o-Leum spray range? Air-brush craft paint is doable an can be make to look good, but needs prep work and thinning (e.g. Liquitext AB Medium).
It's ok to be rough looking because I am going to put lots of rust/weather, scrapes, and dents on the car. Just don't want big blobs of solder. Here are a few cars in my real layout area that I will use for rough-up ideas.
Didn't like my first soldering attempt so I did a second one and it was much better. Got a technique down that will allow me to reproduce all my solder joints with similar results. Took two days searching for a paint that would closely match the manufacturer's GRR beige/off-white. Found it at Michaels - Linen.
Painting time. White primer applied and currently drying.
Pretty good fit for my first try. I'll get better at it since I have many more to make, half of them with the brake wheel which I'm still thinking about.
Good measurements and correct orientations of the tabs for the underframe holes are important to pay attention to during the soldering process.
In order to solder a joint in close proximity to one I just did, I needed a heat sink between them, else the iron's heat would quickly travel down the wire and unsolder the joint I just made (this happened to me only once).
The next step was to cut hookup wire segments to the correct lengths and bend the small tabs that fit into the underframe holes. All ready to solder the first joint.
The end railings were glued on to the cars, some were broken and others a bit crooked, so I decided to cut off the plastic end railings and go metal. I tried several types of circular cross-section metals but in the end decided on electronic hookup wire because it is easy to bend, cut, solder, and paint. I also had to redrill the eight small holes, four on each of the end edges of the underframe, because the old plastic railing tabs were still glued inside. You can see I tried painting the plastic end railing and brake wheel black but didn't like it. You can also see how easy it is to bend a piece of hookup wire to the correct shape, even the small tabs that fit into the holes that I redrilled.
Although you don't see it much, the bottom side of the car looks much more interesting now. You can also see that I glued on the four plastic side railings that came with the car since the colour perfectly matches the body.
The door beams and springs that go on the bottom side of the underframe were painted flat black after a coating of white primer. Also painted black were the air reservoir and door equipment.
Disassembled one of the cars and laid out all the pieces. Previous to taking this photo, I had replaced all of the plastic couplers with black metal ones for two reasons: they won't break as easily when the hoppers are carrying their heavy loads, and they look better.
With Nova Scotia (Canada) mines and quarries being the theme of the HO scale railroad that I am freelancing, I have been collecting 40' Ortner Aggregate Cars to carry real loads of commercially viable Nova Scotia materials on my Walton Rock & Mineral Railway. So far this includes gypsum, shale, coal, barite, manganese, iron, and strontium ores. To date I have acquired 15 used hoppers including 3 Algoma Central and 12 Georgetown. In all cases, the previous owners glued on the end railings but none of the other items that came with the cars. In this thread I will upgrade the cars to look much better in my opinion.