Smokey Valley handrail kits

[hustle_muscle]

I'm thinking of probably installing a Smokey Valley handrail kit on an Athearn BB GP38-2. What do they look like on a BB model and what are your expiriences with Smokey Valley handrails? I don't know anything else about them.

[bogp40]

I haven't used them or installed them in quite a few years.  Before all the fantastic offerings in motive power Railpower shells, detailing and repowering of BB locos was popular as well as nec w/o buying brass.

The Smokey Valley stanchions are great in representing the prototype. They are not too difficult to install (stanchions), however I would recommend buying just the stanchions for the GP38/40 and bend your own rails from .015" brass wire. The SV set has the long hood rails in 3 sections rather than one length. The kit bends also need major rebending and much tweaking to fit properly as well as those railing joints @ a particular stanchion. Using prototype pics and the stock BB rail as a guide start the bends from the pilot steps until you get the horizontal. This is far easier and allows for a much stronger rail for the finished model.  If you are good @ soldering small joints, I recommend soldering the brass rails to the brass stanchions. It is not nec as you can use CA, this of coarse leaves a brittle joint that if abused or flexed too much will break the joint.

It is a bit of work and some research to follow pics, but this provides some of the best rails next to actual "brass".  I recommend airbrushing at least a base coat on the stanchions. Placed in a piece of pine w/ sized holes to hold all stanchions, makes painting a breeze. Some minor paint scraping @ the rail joint for soldering or glueing, paint rails and touch up stanchions and good to go.

Note, some models of the Dash2s and various road battery box and pilot changes may require different length stachions, these are most noted on Phase II w/ anticlimer, just ckeck w/ them before ordering the set. Additional stanchions may be needed beyond the base kit.

[hustle_muscle]

Couldn't I just use the Athearn hand rails with the Smokey Valley stancions?

[bogp40]

hustle_muscle

Couldn't I just use the Athearn hand rails with the Smokey Valley stancions?

 

You could, but soldering will be far more difficult to the steel wire as well as the BB rails if you take close notice, don't actually follow the proper bends especially @ the curves and drops to the steps. Brass is so much easier to form and you can use a .015" wire closer to scale than the .019" of the stock Athearn steel one. Fiddling around w/ that thicker stiff wire may prove more of a problem than making new ones.

An added note, before replacing the handrails, do any other "super" detail work to the shell. If you haven't already added drop grab irons, curved long hood grab, lift rings,  pilot details such as uncoupling levers, MU, air hoses, sand filler hatches and any vents, and mods. This would be the time to do so before working the rails.

[stokesda]

Another option is to get a set of the plastic (delrin?) Athearn handrails for the RTR model. A quick search on eBay turned up several results in various colors. I can't guarantee, but feel reasonably certain that the RTR handrails would be an exact fit for the BB model. If not, some minor tweaking (which may involve pluging and re-drilling mounting holes) should do the trick.

The biggest disadvantage of this over using Smokey Valley products is they will not be as solid and durable as the SV stanchions with wire handrails. If that's what you're after, I recommend getting the stanchion kit and some 0.015" brass or phosphor bronze wire and bending the handrails yourself.

I've only used SV stanchions on two models so far (a Bachmann GP30 and BB Dash-9). They are beautiful when finished, but I found it kind of a pain to build them. In both cases, the stanchions came with some crusty residue on them from the casting process, and had to be cleaned with a brass wire wheel in a Dremel. Depending on the complexity of your handrail geometry, accurately bending wire was another exercise in extreme patience. I chose to solder the handrail joints, and found it tricky to get the stanchions spaced accurately and soldered on straight.

One other problem I had with the SV stanchions on my shells was that the little "angle bracket" on the back side was about 1/64" too close to the mounting pin. The angle bracket is supposed to sit flush on the deck, but on both of my locos, I couldn't get the stanchions to fully seat in the mounting holes because of the darn angle brackets. I ended up re-drilling the mounting holes on one loco, and just grinding off the angle brackets for the second loco.

Like I said, they were sure beautiful and solid when they were finally done, but I don't think I've got the patience to tackle another metal handrail project anytime soon.

[kbkchooch]

Go with the Delrin handrails. The late model Delrin handrails will fit a BB GP38 well.  I've installed a few sets of SV handrails, and was quite disappointed how sloppy and fragile some of the castings were.  I actually had to use 2 complete sets to re-rail 1 locomotive because of breakage of the stanchions before they got soldered.

For what they charge for a kit, I would hqave expected much better than I got!  

[trwroute]

I have used quite a few of the SV stanchions over the years and I really like them.  They are easy to use and if you take your time, they will turn out much better than the factory delrin pieces.  I built this complete Smokey Valley GP15 kit and used the SV handrail stanchions on it.  I used .015 brass wire for the railings.  The Penn Central lettering was for a planned PC layout that also featured a few locos that the PC never had.  The non-PC locos would have included the yellow face and long hood end.  Too bad it never came to be...

How many of you have actually seen a BUILT Smokey Valley GP15?  I've done three.  The first was a Conrail unit back in '92.

[basementdweller]

I have used the SV stanchions and bent my own railings, I think they make a nice upgrade on a BB Athearn loco.

I securred them with CA glue.

I little bit of patience, a protoype pic for reference, two pairs of pliers, and you will have a rewarding evening project. Good luck.

[sh00fly]

I like the brass handrails over the Delrin ones too. SV handrails are some of the best, good advice to use the .015" wire and rebend.

Replacing all the Delring handrails with Smokey Valley if I can find the right kits...the biggest issue with them is availability of their kits. Are some of you still experiencing this?

 

Chris Palomarez

[rdgk1se3019]

I`m having EXTREME difficulty trying to get them at all.........either from my local hobby shop or direct from Smokey Valley...............I think Larry there from SV is smoking something he should not be.

[mikelhh]

Wanting handrails for my Atlas RS-11s, I emailed S/Valley a few months back, asking politely if they would consider sending to Australia. They didn't even respond

 

Mike

[termite467]

LARRY'S WIFE DOES THESE KITS BY HERSELF ONE AT A TIME.THESE KITS ARE EXTREMLY LABOR INTENSIVE.AS FOR WHAT THEY COST THERE IS NO PROFIT IN THESE WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE COST OF MFG. iT COST $80.00+ A CAN TO CAST THE BRASS STANCHION'S AND NOT A SURE THING THE WILL BE GOOD ENOUGH TO KEEP. HE CAST 6 CAN AT A POUR AN 2-3 WILL BE SCRAP

[termite467]

Very nice chuck. If you need the ever elusive frame for the S V gp 15 let me know

[sandusky]

termite467

LARRY'S WIFE DOES THESE KITS BY HERSELF ONE AT A TIME.THESE KITS ARE EXTREMLY LABOR INTENSIVE.AS FOR WHAT THEY COST THERE IS NO PROFIT IN THESE WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE COST OF MFG. iT COST $80.00+ A CAN TO CAST THE BRASS STANCHION'S AND NOT A SURE THING THE WILL BE GOOD ENOUGH TO KEEP. HE CAST 6 CAN AT A POUR AN 2-3 WILL BE SCRAP

A. Quit shouting

B. How you you know this information?

C. It's difficult to believe that one would offer an item with no hope of profit. Is that what you're suggesting is the case?

 

Mike S

 

[termite467]

did not know caps lock was on, I apologize I used to help them in the past is how I know.

[termite467]

From start to finish it will take about 72 hours to mfg a batch of stations and wires. All bends in the wires are bent by hand piece by piece.

 Some of the kits have 67 pieces in themNow at $16.95  per kit do you think theirs any money in this?

 By the way walther's only pay 55% of retail

[trwroute]

termite467

Very nice chuck. If you need the ever elusive frame for the S V gp 15 let me know

 

 

Thanks, Ronny!  I am thinking about building another as I already have a shell and the handrail kit.  I just need a frame.  Let me decide if I actually want to do another and I'll let you know.

 

[termite467]

I spoke with Larry Burt today to discuss this thread and he told me If anyone was interested in purchasing the company it is for sale. His contact is 662 549 3847

You can see for your self how much profit compared to expense and labor there is in these kits

[rdgk1se3019]

I asked for three kits all the way back <-------and I mean way back ......in April 2013......I asked how much?......he said "I`ll send them to you.....you like you pay....if you don`t like then send them back"

 

Well it is now January 2014 and after 7 E mails to him with no response.......I said the heck with it.......I`ll look for some other handrail stanchions.

[SEBASTIEN BOLLE]

They look great on the BB locos, it's well worth the time. I agree that you should just buy the stanchions & bend your own handrails from wire, though I use .010" brass wire, I think it's made by Special Shapes Co.

Happy bending,

-ssw9399

[modelmaker51]

I believe Precision Scale also has EMD stantions for sale. I have done dozens of SV sets over the years and always used .015 phosphor bronze wire for the rails because it's somewhat stiffer than brass and isn't as susceptable to bending.