My father picked up an IHC 2-8-0 that I think was built by Rivarossi at a train show. It runs beautifully and he got a good deal ($40). The only thing is that there is a piece broken off of the running board and I would like to replace it.
Does anyone know of a place that would have this part?
IHC has been out of business for several years, and Rivarossi is now owned by Hornby of England – spare parts are extremely rare and difficult to find. Your best hope would probably be to find an identical model and use it as a parts source.
There used to be a company called Golf Manor Hobbies in Ohio that had spare parts for Rivarossi models, but they are also long gone.
I was afraid of that.
Is there a source of styrene that has a diamond shaped emboss?
Yes, there is. Either Plastruct or Evergreen Scale Models makes such a sheet. If you have a local hobby shop in your immediate vicinity they should have a rack full of both brands of styrene shapes.
Another possible source is K&S Engineering, which makes a Micro-Mesh screen of either aluminum or brass.
Again, a local hobby shop would be the best place to look.
There are 6 hobby shops in my area (within 1/2 hour drive). The two closest to me don’t stock any Evergren, K&S, Plastruct, or any of the scratchbuilding supplies. The biggest is Niagara Hobby, but I’ve already checked there and they don’t have it either. I’ll have to go to K-val (which is my favorite, but farthest) when I get a chance.
Wow! Any hobby shop worthy of the name should carry the bare minimum of scratch-building supplies. I’m talking about strip and sheet styrene, stripwood in a variety of sizes, various sizes of wire and chain. I have 4 within a half-hour’s drive, and they all do.
FWIW, though, you can order supplies from any of a couple of dozen e-tailer’s too.
They have the sheets and strips. Niagara has the most but they don’t turn over a lot, and they don’t have the patterned sheets. They seemed to have moved away from scratchbuilding stuff and are starting to expand their slot-car stuff. I owe a trip to K-Val to my son anyway. At least he had brick pattern sheets for a project , so he might have the what I need.