Hi All
I am building an ho scale tank farm, that has a lot of elevated walkways. I need about 6 actual feet of railing for this system. I want just a standard 2 rail steel raining. The only railing I can find, comes with all kinds of other fencing and other items that I don’t need. For all of the railing that I need for this project, buying it this way is going to cost around $75.00. Could someone help me locate this railing.
Thanx (CCG) corbyn city george
How about making it yourself? All you need is a jig, some wire and soldering skills.
Plastruc has some, but it’s plastic. I have a similar problem trying to find a small piece of metal railing (for a tugboat). I’ve given up and will buy the kit you mention and have a lot of railing left over. Should find a use for it - like signs, railings are everywhere.
Im sorry, I want plastic, but I want it look like steel.
CCG
Look at Plastruct # 90682. Two 6" pieces for $2.55. It is square in cross-section.
ccg,
I agree with Sir Madog that the solution is to build the railings yourself with thin wire.
I recently built an N scale tug boat that included very thin solid wire in the kit. The wire was not intended for railings, but I built the railings for the tug boat with the wire because it worked better than the thin, fragile balsa wood railings provided with the kit.
You can buy thin solid wire at craft stores like Hobby Lobby or Michaels. You can solder it or glue (CA) it together or use 2 part epoxy as I did. Six feet of wire to build the railings will cost you pennies, not dollars.
Here is a link to my thread that shows the railings on the tug boat in various photos.
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/189134.aspx
Give it a try. It is not that tricky to work with and will provide a very satisfactory solution to your problem.
Rich
I would also recommend scratch building of the rail The proper size/ scale of brass (if HO and will use at least .012" or larger/ phosper bronze if smaller) can be laid out on a block or jig and very easily soldered. This is where you will find that the “acid” flux helps. Soldering (no stick) pads come in hand here. I don’t mind using a pine block, you don’t need that much head to solder that fine wire.
Take a look at Hardware Cloth. This website … http://www.twpinc.com/twpinc/products/TWPCAT_4/TWPCAT_GREEN … has a mesh of 4 per inch. The wire dia is 0.025". That would be just a little over 2" dia in HO. If you suppose that a common height for a handrail is 36" … that’s .406" in HO.
If you trim the hardware cloth like in this graphic … the wire colored red would be inserted into the structure while that above would/could represent HO handrails. The spacing between the uprights is .25" is what? … about 20" in HO? Simple to snip away as many uprights as needed to get your wanted spacing for the uprights.
I know you said you wanted plastic but scratch building with wire would also be my suggestion. I use .020 phosphor bronze available from Tichy Train Group. They also offer .015 and .010 as well as other sizes. It is not hard to bend but very sturdy (it will easily withstand normal handling) and it solders very well. As was suggested before, make a jig out of wood to ease assembly. You will have total control over height and spacing so you can make everything fit accurately.
Here is a simple railing on a coal trestle. The ladders are brass freight car ladders - no, I didn’t make those too!
The first few joints will be a little tough but once you catch on it is easy. I use a small file to clean up the joints and remove any excess solder.
Dave
I’d also suggest soldering brass wire together to construct the railing.
First, draw the wire through a folded piece of fairly fine sandpaper - the wet/dry type (used dry) works well, making two or three passes - this removes the oxidation and makes soldering much easier. Next, cut the wire to the lengths required. The easiest way to do so and get a clean cut that requires no touch-up is to use a knife, working on a hard surface such as a sheet of glass. I use my old, otherwise worn out X-Acto #11 blades - use the heel of the blade and simply snick-off the lengths need. Be sure to hold the piece being cut off, to prevent it from flying away.
To make a simple soldering jig, I use a sheet of 1/4"x4" balsa. Using a straightedge and machinist’s square, lay out the railing with a pencil, directly on the wood. Next, place dressmaker’s straight pins along one edge of each line (keep them vertical) then lay the wire against the pins, adding more pins on the opposite side of the wire to hold it in place. After all of the wires are pinned in place, use the tip of another old blade to apply a bit of resin flux to each joint. After you solder a joint, place a small wad of wet tissue over it to prevent it from becoming un-soldered as you work on the next joint, and follow it along as you work, keeping all soldered joints adjacent to the one on which you’re working thus protected. If you leave the first pins in place when removing the finished railing, they can be re-used to align the wires of the next section to be assembled.
For short railings (or your long one, if you’re ambitious) you can also assemble them with ca and simulated pipe joints.
For the ones shown, I used .022" brass wire, and .035 styrene rod, from Evergreen. Using a #74 bit in a pin vise, drill the rod as shown, cutting off suitable lengths as they’re available - much easier than cutting first, then trying to drill. As the pieces are created, thread them onto
Thanx for all of the help. Being new at this hobby I need all of the help I can get. I would like to insert a picture of my tank farm, for some advice on detailing. Could someone explain how I can insert a photo.
thanx CCG
Inserting photos is easy, ccg. You actually insert a link to the photo, the original of which is stored in a photo-sharing site, like Photobucket. Most of us, I believe, belong to Photobucket, but there’re also Rail Images, Shutterfly, and, I assume, more. So:
Join a photo-sharing site. Upload your images to the site.
If it’s Photobucket, after you click on the image, you’ll see a list of codes pop up below. The last one is the img code. Highlight and copy it.
Return to or start a post in this forum. At the appropriate spot, paste the img link into your post.
While you’re in the “create post” mode, even if you preview your post (I believe), you’ll only see the img code.
But when you post your post, your image will appear.
That’s all there is to it!
Rick Krall
This is my first attempt at inserting a photo. This is the pipe support structure for the piping in my ho tank farm the walkway and railing is on the near side of the pipeway.
thanks for the help with inserting photos
CCG
CCG
Here is a little more detailed explanation on how to post pictures. Hope it helps. The process boggled my mind at first too!!
Dave