I’m looking at fire escapes. Walthers Cornerstone has a 3-platform model for $10, and Tichy has a 2-platform one for $3. Has anyone tried either of these? How do they look?
Good afternoon Mr. B - I don’t believe the Walthers set is out yet. They are available in modern and vintage versions and are supposed to be out this summer. Says it is large enough for a 4 story escape and includes the ladder. Seems like I ordered one of those Tichy fire escapes for a customer a long time ago, and I remember it was nice enough that I wanted to order some for my layout, but it’s been so long ago I don’t remember anything else about it other than my customer was happy.[:)] Always a good thing.
I really like the Gold Medal Models etched brass fire escape–but then I’m in N scale. I haven’t yet used one for actual fire escape. I used part of Gold Medal’s ornate old-time fire escape etching to represent the cast iron grillwork on a model of the porch of my mother-in-law’s house.
That’s true, for N scalers the Gold Medal Models fire escapes are nice. I tried to find some more info on fire escapes. Looks like the Tichy would be enough to do two floors of fire escapes. Not trying to be a shill for Walthers, but the Cornerstone will do four stories. And the Sheepscot HO fire escape will do five floors for the same money. Have not seen the Sheepscot fire escape, but based on other items I have seen from them, the fire escape must be nice.
Hi, MisterBeasley. I’ve used the Tichy fire escapes and can say, like all of their other items, they go together nicely and look good in the end. I’m going to try to post a picture here (haven’t done it on this forum yet) of a flat on my layout with one Tichy fire escape. It’s pretty much as the instructions call for except I did not use the floor braces as they looked a little “chunky.” I ended up using wire instead.
Thanks! That’s a great picture, exactly what I was looking for. I didn’t realize that the Walthers set wasn’t actually available yet, but it’s due this month according to their web site. (Seems like the ad appeared in MR a long, long time ago.)
In looking at the pictures, I’d like to point out that most of these sets specify “a four-story building” or “a three-story building.” This is technically correct, but remember that the first story doesn’t get a fire escape, so the 4-story model actually only has 3 platforms, and the 3-story one has only 2 platforms. From the picture, the Walthers one has a roof ladder as well. I guess I’ll have to check the local building codes to figure this one out. [:D]
I think Sheepscot also produces, or produced a brass fire escape.
Being from a far-away-place can anyone point me to a link that will give me pics of fire escapes and any other guide as to where to locate them for my layout buildings please?
TIA [:P]
This is from Tichy Train Group’s web site:
http://www.tichytraingroup.com/index.php?page=view_product.php&id=278&picture=8060_2
www.walthers.com is a great general place to find anything. I just put “fire escape” in the search box and it brings them all up.
If you want pictures of real ones, go to www.google.com and put “fire escape” in the search box. Then select Images above that.
EEK! [:O] I did the Google search… found a few million entries! Anyone know of anything slightly more specific? [?] Thanks Mr B! [8D]
I live a long way off. Just received my MR mag for September. Have a look at the ads in there. Walther’s due in September they advise. Look pretty good in the ads. But of course they would. Not many vendors want to present dud photos in their ads.
The Walthers items are now in stock 993-3729 and 933-3736