The last four Athearn SD 50 I have purchased all have hand rail problems. They vibrate loose and break. One was broken fresh out of the box. I contacted Athearn about them supplying metal hand rails but they do not make them for the new engines.
I would prefer to have metal unpainted hand rails to the junk plastic ones that come with the engines. Has anyone else had problems with the plastic hand rails?
Exactly what handrails are you seeking? If you need them for the older GP38-2,GP40-2,GP35,SD40-2 etc they are available. These are listed on Athearn’s web page as well as Horizons…
Todays spaghetti thin scale handrail take CAREFUL handling regardless of brand… [}:)][8]
to Traindisplay:
If you want metal handrails, you can do the following:
Buy a Smokey Valley SD60 stanchion kit (it has the same number of stanchions as an SD50, including two of the extra tall ones that goes over the angled blower cover).
Bend your own handrails using .015" brass or steel piano wire.
Solder the stanchions to the handrails you bent. If you used brass wire, use rosin-core lead solder. If you used steel wire, you need rosin-free silver-bearing solder (the rosin flux prevents the solder from sticking to the steel).
The Smokey Valley stanchions and .015" wire, when soldered correctly, are quite durable and will withstand handling and hold paint very well. I’m in the process of retrofitting all of my engines using these.
Good luck.
I agree with LongIslandTom,
Smokey Valley stanchions done properly will look as good as rails on any quality brass loco. Use prototype pics as reference when bending the .015 wire. SV rails are pre bent and in 2-3 pcs for the long hood, don’t use them, bend you own from one length of brass. Your bends can be made to look much better than ones supplied fron SV.
I have a few loco’s that came with the plastic handrails, I have 2 BB SD40-2’s that came with both metal & plastic in the box.
I actually prefer the plastic ones.
All of my RTR & my Proto units have the plastic handrails. Haven’t had a problem with them, I’m just extra careful when handling them.
Gordon
I like the plastic hand rails too, they look better than the metal ones but do of course require some special care in handeling.
Guys,I shall come clean.I been slowly replacing the old metal handrails with the newer scale handrail…They improve the looks of the engine and just looks better.[:D]
I want to thank all the people that responded to my post on Athearn plastic hand rails. I am in my mid 60s and my son is in his thirtys. Between us we have about 120 Athearns engines. We have a 16 by 32 foot modular display that we operate in the central Pennsylvania area. About 80 % of our engines are Athearn with the rest being Proto 2000 and Atlas. I have never had problems with the hand rail on the Atlas with repeated packing and unpacking for train shows.The Athearn SD 40-2 plastic hand rail seam to be better then the plastic ones that come on the SD50s. I have a new SD40T-2 fresh out of the box with a broken hand rail. When I got it home and unpacked it, there were pieces in the bottom of the box. The Athearn SD 50, in my openion, is one of the best engines Athearn ever produced with a good paint job and smooth power assembly but for the price they ask, it needs better hand rails.
You mean they fall off when the engine runs?
I have not heard of them happening. Maybe use some super glue on the parts that are loose?
It seems so funny to me that for years, people have been screaming for plastics handrails for Athearn locomotives. Now they want the metal ones back. I like the metal ones as well.
I’ve been making my own for years. .020 music wire for rails and stanchions.
In my experience, the plastics, sometimes seemed to change shape by themselves. Metal doesn’t do that…
i dont know what any of you are talking about.
I absalutly LOVE the plastic ones, they are great. scale sized, they look good. and they are easy to replace. which I have NEVER need to do becasue I have never had a plastic hand rail break on me…EVER. and I am so rough on them, sometimes when I am ina hurry i just grab the engine and so many times I have pressed the hand rails agains the body, and they are allways fine. I have stopped worring about it. they are so flexiable they get bent, they rebound and life goes on, metal ones bend and stay bent, then you have to strighten it and it allways lookes like an " S " after you " strighten " it.
again. i dont know what any of you are talking about, the plastic ones are so tough and durable. where as metal ones not only look like crap, but cant perform as well as the plastic ones do.
I have seen some instances of plastic handrails failing due to a number of reasons: poor quality control, poor storage, exposure to plastic-unfriendly chemicals. These don’t happen often though. The most common instance I’ve seen are locos that were put on display for years in a hobby store window, and the constant exposure to sunlight and heat tends to bake the plastic until they turn brittle and crack.
I have several Atlas Master Series locos with their plastic handrails as well as P2Ks and the newer Athearns and they have been good… I do baby them though… No rough handling to prevent paint chipping, and my storage yard for these locos is cool, dark, dry, and periodically cleaned for dust buildup.
That said, I also have several locomotives I have converted to hand-bent handrails using steel .015" piano wire soldered to Smokey Valley stanchions using silver bearing solder, and these are a lot more durable than plastic. The piano wire steel has such “bounce” that it is very difficult to deform them. They also hold paint a lot better than plastic handrails.
The mild steel Athearn uses for their old stock handrails on the other hand does deform rather easily though, and I have never liked them.
Of all the engines with handrails on my roster, the ones with the Smokey Valley stanchions + piano-wire handrails are my most durable and looks even better than the plastic ones as can be seen here:
