Shades

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello again!

Its been so long since my last questions.

I am a big fan of locomotive shades and am about to buy a Walthers HO SD60, a great engine but little detail around ditch lights, cab shades or grab irons.

Apart from making the shades (which I do not want to do) does anyone know of a detail kit that includes the shades for this locomotive? I know Walthers sells a grab iron kit but for some reasons its the shades I enjoy?

Thank you, again

Sean

2

Walthers sell this kit and for the shades, there are these from A-line. There are others that make theses, try a seach.

Mike.

3

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the suggestions I will order from A-line and will post as it happens

Sean

4

Making shades for diesels should be pretty simple, but those ones from A-Line look pretty good.

I don’t have much in the way of diesels any more, but did make “canvas” shades for these ones, using wire and tissue…

…and most of my steamers have ones formed from brass…

…these “canvas” ones are formed from brass shimstock over a wire frame…

…and ditto for this one…

…more using brass…

Wayne

5

Thanks Wayne,

While our new layout will be modelled in the steam era I have a significant amount of modernish rolling stock and these new engines replaced about 6 older ones which had dubious pulling power. I do enjoy locomotives and rolling stock looking right.

6

What I like about the A-Line shades is the two pins that make for a solid connection, and being etched metel, you can slighly bend them as you need.

I’ve tried making shades from plastic, and just “butt” glueing them to the cab, but they come off easy.

Cal-Scale also makes, found at many on line stores and Ebay.

I like your canvas shades Wayne!

Mike.

7

Ditto to everything Mike said above.

I like the A-line shades, and durability counts here.

-Kevin

8

Yeah, durability is the key if you’re adding shades or awnings. The ones I made using either tissue or shim-stock brass use wire for support, and the wire is always cemented into holes drilled in the cabs’ sides.
Simple ones made from sheet brass have soldered-on mounting wires, which are also cemented into holes drilled in the cab, or, in the case of brass locomotives, the shades are soldered to the cab, usually with mounting wires included.

The ones on the cabs of Bachmann Consolidations, (also used on several non-Bachmann locos) however, are bent from sheet brass, and simply ca’d onto the cast-on plastic ones on the cabs’ sides - giving them a little longer overhang, they look more realistic than the simple cast-in-place ones, yet are still very durable.

Wayne

9

Thank you for all the replies. What I especially liked was the way the answers led towards my next question. Drilling into a perfectly good locomotive cab!

But let me receive the shades first before I get ahead of myself and end up with too many projects at once.