I was wondering who here makes their own Ho diesek locomotive railings? I have a few locomotives that need ralings,What do you make your railings from something that would.Be easy to use and make.
I used to make my own railings years ago. I just used the appropriate size wire and a pair of needle nose pliers. Measure the ones you are replacing or just use the old ones as a template. Once you've done a few it's pretty easy.
Joe
it is not too hard at all ... for material you can get phosphor bronze in different sizes [solder together], or steel wire [tougher], but the steel should be resistance welded together for maximum strength...
I use brass wire. It's easy to work with, and very forgiving if you make a mistake.
I have also used guitar string/ piano wire, but it is almost impossible to re-bend it if you make a mistake. But it is more resistant to bumbling fingers and handeling .
Rust...... It's a good thing !
What do u use for posts?
My original favourites were the ones offered by Athearn...metal stanchions and metal handrails. They often needed small adjustments, but done properly, they looked good and stood-up well to handling.
A friend was looking for an RS-1, and I found one, from Atlas, at a nearby hobbyshop (now long gone). I let him know the asking price, and mentioned that it was heavily weathered, and would need to be stripped before I could re-paint it in the style and colour of CNR prototypes.
The handrails were plastic (of an unknown type), and the stanchions (also plastic) were bent inward on the loco's walkways.After trying to straighten them (to no avail) I simply cut-away the handrails, then drilled out the stanchions where the plastic handrails had been. Next, I formed new handrails from suitably-sized piano wire, then threaded the stanchions onto the handrails. The same procedure was done for the handrails on the front and rear of the loco, too.
Here's the re-painted and re-detailed locomotive...
A couple of years later, the owner opted-out of model railroading, and sold it to another friend.
The handrails stand-up well to handling, much the same as I had done on an earlier Atlas diesel (also repainted in the CNR paint scheme, and sold to the same buyer, as both were too modern for my layout)...
These two Athearn diesels, much modified to match their prototypes, used the all-metal Athearn handrails...
...the two shown were the first ones that I had built and painted, (based on photos of the real ones) and were the only two that I had kept of the 66 TH&B locos (geeps & switchers) that I had built and painted.
Much to my relief, Atlas finally came-up with their version of TH&B diesels.
Wayne
Check out ProtoPowerWest/A-Line they make replacement handrail kits.
Locomotive Handrail Sets – PPW/A-Line/Arrow Hobby (ppw-aline.com)
Dan
CGW103 What do u use for posts?
I replaced all the oversize railings on my Atlas engines with much finer wire. For the stanchions, I cut away the railing from the original plastic set and drilled holes in the top of the stanchions to match the new wire.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ