Options for thinner handrails?

[ednadolski]

what was the method of attaching the rails to the locomotives? It looks like you guys drilled holes into the shell for the wire, but how did you secure the rails and keep them from falling off?

The GMM stanchions have a little tab at the bottom that you bend 90 degrees, then glue with CA into a hole drilled into the sidesill.  Kato and some other brand locos make the sidesill from two halves, which I prefer to glue together before snipping off the plastic factory stanchions with a flush cutting pliers and drilling the hole. BTW when installing stanchions this way it helps keep them precisely vertical by sighting them against the doors and other vertical lines molded into the body of the loco.   The other thing I do is, I use the longer stanchions from the GMM set, and then after the wire handrails are soldered I clip off the excess length.

BTW Skipgear & Steve, great pics!   

[DRGW Jake]

Hmm, the idea of etching handrails is intriguing, Gary. I happen to own a copy of AutoCAD myself (Yay for free student licenses!) and I may have to look into that.

And many thanks to everyone who has offered input, you guys have been awesome!

--Jake

[havingfuntoo]

You should give the item a rinse off before painting after the use of the phosphoric acid as the heat from the soldering can cause some oxides to form, looks like a crusty coating. Also on some ferrous metals the coating left behind can be powdery (iron phosphate) which if excessive will cause poor paint bonding.  Some etch primers use phos acid as part of the bonding process. So do you have to wash it off ...... yes ......

[Ken Ford]

Gary - this looks like a fascinating project and one in which I'm very interested.  I have a bunch of Atlas SD60s that I'd like to improve the handrails on, but GMM doesn't do the longer stanchions for the blower duct area.  Doing one piece etches would be perfect... I hope your idea of a plug-and-play CAD component library works out, I'm not sure I can do them myself from a blank screen.

[TrainCat2]

The Transfer Cabooses had perplexed me for a while for this very reason. The prominent feature of the caboose was all of the railings. These not only had to be scale in appearance, but also tough to stand up to handling. The solution was an etched .005" stainless steel stanchion that folded together 180 degrees to form a .010" laminate that is x10 stronger than a single sheet of metal. I used bend tabs to create the footings that allowed attachment and .008" PB wire for the actual railing.

[DRGW Jake]

Very nice! What gave you the idea to etch the stanchions at half-thickness and fold them? Also, how did you fold them? It seems like it would be difficult to fold such a small piece of metal and have its edges line up correctly.


--Jake

[Denver Road Doug]

Wow, that caboose is impressive.   I would love to have a MoPac version that looks that good.

[Bendtracker1]

Wow, that caboose is impressive.   I would love to have a MoPac version that looks that good.

I'll second that!

I'm not trying to highjack this thread but, Speaking of a MoPac caboose, does anybody know what ever happened to the one that Fox Valley announced a few years back?

[pnolan48]

You should be able to solder it using the right flux (liquid acid, such as Stay Clean). I solder music wire all the time.

Didn't realize it worked for piano wire. My soldering at small sizes is a disaster.

You need sub-80 drills. Here's a good source: http://drillcity.stores.yahoo.net/index.html

Thanks for the source! I'll try some. My drilling at those small sizes . . .

[DKS]

My soldering at small sizes is a disaster.

The right flux can make a world of difference. For years I thought I was just lousy at soldering. Turns out I was just using the wrong materials. Ever since I started using acid flux, I've been able to solder things I'd thought impossible.

[SAH]

I'm extremely impressed with the results that skipgear, Ed N, and SAH are getting with their handrails, but it's hard (at least for me!) to build a fleet using this approach.  So I started looking into etching handrails.  Some explorations are in this thead:
-Gary

I totally agree with Gary.  It would be hard for anybody to build a fleet using the stanchion & wire handrail approach unless they have A LOT of time on their hands.  And if you need a fleet, you probably are planning to have ops sessions, which leads one to ask why the superdetailed locos are necessary.  It would be nice, but something usually has to give.

Philip - The jig allowed me to access all sides of the loco during the detailing process with minimum handling.  It looks cobbled together but it worked real well.

I also remember slipping a piece of basswood between the hood and handrail/stanchions to provide a solid backing surface for soldering.  Not sure if I have pictures.

Steve

[Zox]

I think some handrail-and-stanchion sets (in particular the ones for the "long hoods") might be do-able using the Silhouette cutter and acetate sheet. I've been able to cut fence sections out of 0.004" acetate, with pickets 0.010" across. The material's pretty resistant to damage--unless you crease it, it will flex and then resume its original shape.

[pnolan48]

I think some handrail-and-stanchion sets (in particular the ones for the "long hoods") might be do-able using the Silhouette cutter and acetate sheet. I've been able to cut fence sections out of 0.004" acetate, with pickets 0.010" across. The material's pretty resistant to damage--unless you crease it, it will flex and then resume its original shape.

Whoa! I can't wait to try this! Thanks!