I will be receiving the following undecorated Soho & Co lightweight brass diner in the next few days, which I picked up for a very good price off eBay. The plan is to eventually paint and detail it inside & out. Should make for a fun project.
Do any of you have recommendations for good-quality diaphragms that will fit this particular model? Thanks for the help…
Tom
IF, if you could ever find a source I find the best looking diaphragms are the ones used on the “upgraded” Rivarossi/IHC cars widely available in the 1980s and '90s.
IHC-Rivarossi-HO-Diaphragm by Edmund, on Flickr
They easily snapped off the shells, then with a little snipping and filing I would epoxy them in place in the appropriate position:
IHC_diaphragm-brass by Edmund, on Flickr
PRR_POC-85-b by Edmund, on Flickr
Your full dining room car would require a full-width diaphragm at the end shown in your photo which was always paired with the kitchen/lounge or kitchen/dormitory. Shoreham Shops, Broadway Limited and American Limited all made various full-width diaphragms.
About all you can easily get your hands on these days are the American Limited styles. They are passable, at best but better than nothing.
Some of the brass passenger car imports I’ve purchased, including Soho, would sometimes include an odd-shaped, shriveled up rubber molding that looked more like an old rubber band. Others have included deteriorated foam that went immediately in the trash.
Good Luck, Ed
Sheldon? Calling Sheldon!
Rich
Tom, for non-operational diaphragms, the IHC models Ed suggested are what I have stashed away.
I want to have operational touching diaphragms, but I also have tight hidden curves. In experimentation, it seems only the MHP diaphragms have the potential to work, but they do not look very good.
I have American Limited diaphragms between a couple of sets of F units, but not passenger cars. They improve the look a lot when coupled to one another, but they do not look as good in to open, and tend to fall apart.
Also, the American limited diaphragms do not like passenger cars in tight radius curves.
-Kevin
If you want them to work, American Limited.
http://www.americanlimitedmodels.com/ho-passenger-car-diaphragms/
Sheldon
Sheldon,
In one of your pictures of the American Limited diaphragms on a curve, you show seperation between the inner and outer diaphragm shell pieces.
When I had this in my experiments I considered it unacceptable. Is this actually OK in operation? If it does not cause problems, I might need to do more work with this product.
-Kevin
Kevin, that picture represents the conditions of what is likely the absolute minimum radius.
It does not cause any operational problems. It only happens on the sharpest curves. It will not bind or catch.
If you have, or have seen, the diaphragms on the Proto2000 PA, FA or E units, the American Limited is the same kind of design.
Sheldon
Kevin, you should also keep in mind that based on my testing, 28" radius is likely the practical minimum for body mounted couplers and close coupling like I show in the photos.
Athearn or ConCor 72’ cars can retain their truck mounted couplers and American Limited sells a version of the diaphragm that comes with a spacer so the diaphragms touch and work but the car separation is larger and I believe that configuration will even run on 18" radius.
I would consider 30" radius the minimum for 85’ cars close coupled with body mounted couplers.
One more note, maybe I am just good with fragile stuff, but I have never had any real issues with American Limited diaphragms coming apart after installation. Admittedly, once equipment is on the layout, I don’t handle it much.
Sheldon
I tried several different diaphragms for my Athearn 72’ cars and finally setteled on Walthers.
They work very good with my lighting pigtails.
They slip and slide nicely and haven’t caused any problems so far in about five years. They hide my lighting wires nicely.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Mel,
The problem is that Walther is not selling that type of diaphram any more. They worked perfectly for me for years but finding them is difficult at best.
Scott Sonntag
I did not know that. I guess it was kinda lucky that I stocked up on them.[:D] I have two cars under construction and five sets of diaphragms.[Y]
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Walthers has pretty much discontinued all the “old school” stuff.
I used those with good results back in the day as well. But when I saw the American Linited product years ago, and realized I could get near scale distance close coupling with working diaphragms, I was all in.
The couple of C&O cars in my photos are part of the first train where I used the American Limited diaphragms and closed up the coupling distance.
Then they got lots of hours of testing on the Severna Park Model Railroad Club layout. They still run great nearly two decades later.
Sheldon
Close coupling works OK on my mainline (tightest curve is 24”) but 72’ close coupled cars won’t clear my #4 yard turnouts without diaphragms. They run fine with standard shank Kadee couplers.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Walthers and MHP both made similar diaphragms that were great. Now they get big $$$ on eBay.
-Kevin
There’s another brand of working passenger car diaphragms, and those are the ones by Hi Tech Detais:
https://www.hitechdetails.com/Hi-Tech-P_Car_Diaphragms.html
As for the Walthers paper diaphragm, this was the last thing that Walthers actually made for and by themselves. The ancient machine stashed somewhere at Walthers that created these things was such a pain to operate that no one wanted to use it. Still, up until recently, Walthers would send some poor staffer to run the machine and crank out a few more. My guess is that the machine finally broke and could not be fixed in an affordable way.
Thanks Paul!
I was unaware of those, and they look great!
At $10.00 per car they are kind or pricey, but… it they work… they might be my solution.
I bookmarked their page.
-Kevin
Are they still in business? The last time that website was updated was 2014…
Tom
Can someone with a Windows or Linux box try playing the ‘high bandwidth’ video in that Hi-Tech page to see if it runs? The criOS attempt simply gives a play button with a slash across it.
It’s a SolidWorks moving component assembly.avi and works in Windows.
Tom
I don’t know how to make it play on my windows PC?
Sheldon