The shell for the Athearn Genesis F7A is made by Highliner. The A-unit has 6 foot ladders, 3 on each side of the loco.
Less than careful handling a few years ago caused one of ladders to come loose and fall off. It is actually molded onto the bottom of the shell and the only contact points are the two tiny ends of the side rails.
If you have had this problem, what on earth did you use to hold it in place? I have tried several types of glue, and some work at first, but it doesn’t take much to knock them off again.
Rich, know exactly your frustration, I went through this w/ many steps until I added a small length of brass wire to the back. Initially i tried to drill out to attempt a pinning of the piece. They’re just too small and fragile for that. By carving, filing a slight groove on the backside and also the shell allows for a better attachment that can deal w/ a bit of a handling and abuse. CA seemed to work well, but you could use a minute dab of epoxy also. That slight added thickness is not that obvious and better than no step/ ladder at all.
I’m not personally familiar with the Highliner shell, but I would drill both stiles of the step and insert a short length of .012" stainless steel wire in each, leaving approximately 1/8" protruding. Use those protruding ends to locate the correct placement for matching holes in the bottom edge of the body shell, and drill accordingly. Use ca to secure the wires into the step and then into the body shell. Pinning the steps in this manner reinforces the brittle butt-joint made by the ca, making it less likely that the step will fall off when struck, even if the blow is strong enough to deflect the step from vertical.
If you don’t wish to drill and pin, then a solvent-type cement will give a stronger and much longer-lasting bond than ca alone, which is particularly weak to shear forces.
A solution to the broken foot ladder problem was posted on another forum. Their solution was to use a wire footrail and use a low wattage soldering gun to press the ends of the foot ladder into the plastic shell.
I have not tried this solution yet myself but there were positive responses on the forum from people who did try it with success.
If you’re “too chicken” to try to heat up that quite thin shell and chance destroting the shell, I would rather try as I suggested above. Groove w/ half round file of “carve” the slot w/ blade. If the wire protrudes inward at all you may need to file clearance slot on the frame side, quite tight fit.
Was a piece of cake on broken Stewart shells, but those sides/ stirrups are more than twice the thickness over that Highliner shell.
I take it that these are regular F-unit style steps, not the kind found on freight cars? If the side of the carbody is at least .020" thick, it should be a simple matter to drill and pin with .012" stainless steel wire (available from Detail Associates) as I outlined previously. If the shell is thinner than that, I’d alter the frame using a cut-off disc - remove enough material to allow a piece of styrene to be cemented to the inside bottom edge of the body shell, creating a thicker area where the step is located. Use solvent-type cement to attach it and let it cure overnight before drilling for pins.
The picture below, while of a freight car, illustrates the piece added to allow drilling for A-Line sill steps, usually a #75 drill bit (.021").
Wayne, thanks for that follow up. I don’t have a caliper so I cannot calculate the exact width of the shell. But, I do have some styrene sheets of various thicknesses, so I can closely match the shell to one of the sheets to approximate the thickness and report back.
I like the idea of drilling into the shell if the width allows it to secure those step ladders. As far as inserting a thin piece of plastic inside the shell, I am reluctant to do that because the shell is a tight fit as it is.
Incidentally, the step ladder did fall off again, so the CA adhesive did not hold. And, yes, they are regular F-unit style steps.
Yeah, depending on the “innards” of that locomotive, you may have to remove some material from the frame/weight - that’s why I suggested a little surgery with a cut-off disc. Once the shell has been removed, cover anything not pertinent to the operation with a combination of masking tape and paper - like masking a car for painting, then go to town with the disc. Once you’re done, use a brush or vacuum to remove the cutting residue before removing the tape and paper.
Because you’ve already used ca on the joint, you’ll need to use it again when re-attaching the step, but with pins inserted, there’s less chance of it dropping off, even if the glue joint gets broken again. Ca isn’t that permanent on such butt-joints, but it’s very good where parts are fitted together, either by their complex shapes or by a mechanical connection, such as the wire pins.
