Model Building HO SP Consist Build 16 - How To Make Handrails Part 1

[@riogrande5761]

Nice you show the pitfalls and mistakes and how to recover and move on.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I make plenty of those. Making handrails is tricky, and I seldom do it perfectly every time. I wanted to show how to deal with some of the stuff that can go wrong. I'm glad you liked that aspect. Thanks for watching!

[@BriansModelTrains]

Another great video!

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for watching!

[@FelineSublime]

I got most of my collection secondhand, which meant a lot of engines got separated from their original boxes and parts packets well before they came my way. I've been worried I had no idea where to start on fabricating my own handrails, light lenses, etc., but this has been a great help. I've had some experience using brass wire to fix or replace grabs, steps, and such on freight cars, but those are always small lengths with simple corner bends at each end.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you found the program helpful. I am still working on part 2, which will deal with the end handrails for the B30-7 and handrails for a couple other locomotives. Thanks for watching!

[@FelineSublime]

@@DanielCortopassi I model both ATSF and SP in the 80s and 90s. How did you go about the light package for the long hood end on the B30-7? I have a handful of RPP shells I've been collecting and I can't find a casting anywhere. It's hard enough to find the UDE "cobra light" these days for the U-boats I have.

[@DanielCortopassi]

@@FelineSublime I fabricated the rear end light package for the B30-7. I show how I did it in part 4 of this series, here on the channel, if you're curious.

[@hond4srule]

A true master at work 👍

[@DanielCortopassi]

Thanks so much!

[@edcvgp9]

Just in time, I have 12 GP-9s I will be putting KV stanchions on, so I thank you for this, will look forward to part 2 and 3 and so on.

[@DanielCortopassi]

Wow, that's a lot of GP9s! I'm glad you liked the video. I'll be covering some of the EMD models in the future. Thanks for watching!

[@paulkirkmanMYTRAINS]

Very cool. I remember doing older Athearn blue diesel when I was young. Don't know I could still do it. Neat to see you have mastered the work. Great video !!!!!

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the video. I've still got a couple more blue box engines I need to get to. I guess we all had a lot of them at one point. Thanks for watching!

[@Vman7757]

Thank you for sharing. Love this series.

[@DanielCortopassi]

You're welcome. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Thanks for watching!

[@Vman7757]

Hey John. You should come up the the Sacramento club on Grant street and Video there two layouts.

[@DanielCortopassi]

There's no John at this channel, but I would like to visit that layout sometime!

[@Vman7757]

@@DanielCortopassi Sorry Daniel. Doing to much at one time.

[@Trains-With-Shane]

That's super delicate work! The results sure are nice, though. I always enjoy watching you detail your "hero" units.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching!

[@dimiz218]

Very nice work Daniel! Thanks for sharing!

[@DanielCortopassi]

You're welcome. Thanks for watching!

[@BritanniaPacific]

I keep thinking of making handrails for steam locomotives. That’ll probably be a little more laborious since steam locomotives are more complex than diesels.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I have used some small stanchions to put a handrail along the boiler on a couple of N scale steamers. The same wire bending techniques should still work. Good luck with your projects! Thanks for watching!

[@Mildcat743]

This is the one thing about superdetailing that really intimidates me. I have a quartet of Blue Box SD40-2s I'm upgrading loosely off what you did for your model of ATSF 5126, albeit mine will be CNW. All of them need new handrails.

[@DanielCortopassi]

Before this video I hadn't made handrails in quite a while, so I had to deal with overcoming some inertia to start doing it again. Practice is the best teacher. If you have four similar units you'll get plenty of that! It should get easier, in theory, as you make more of the same thing. Good luck with your project and thanks for watching!

[@BubblyToast]

Great video as always Dan, I’m building a Kaslo GP9rm and this video will be super helpful.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the video and found it helpful. Good luck with your project. I have a freight car kit from Kaslo that I need to build one of these years. Thanks for watching!

[@justinmalachinski1]

This is really handy cause recently I accidentally broke the handrails on a GP60 I bought and I was so upset

[@DanielCortopassi]

One of my pet peeves with a lot of modern diesel models is the plastic handrails. I really wish more manufacturers would start using metal or something that was more durable and dimensionally stable. Thanks for watching!

[@justinmalachinski1]

@@DanielCortopassi being a young modeler at 19 plastic handrails is really all that I’ve known, besides the few blue box engines I had as a kid. I love your content especially the building segments like this so I can fix my mistakes. I also take a lot of inspiration from your Blue Box Sd40-2 build as I’d love to make some of my old engines see new life

[@streetfightinmanrs]

Thank you for this video. It came at a perfect time as I am restoring/correcting an Atlas U36-C and hit a dead end with the handrails.

[@DanielCortopassi]

You're welcome. I'm glad if it helps you. Thanks for watching!

[@mickabikhair675]

Gday, with your stanchions & rails use your packing strip as a guide jig for your height and spacings by scribing vertical and horizontal guidelines and locators into a piece of flat brass that's affixed to the packing strip the brass is now dual purpose a template and acting as a heat sink when soldering the railings. The brass strip can also have small alligator clamps on lead electrical wires riveted back to the brass plate to act as moveable clamps and heat sinks the same as you would soldering electrical circuitry or if you wish to get fancy a full length sprung loaded flat bar similar to a clipboard using flat spring steel strips fitted to the brass plate and used as a linear clamp.

[@DanielCortopassi]

Thats an interesting idea. I'll have to give it some thought. Thanks for the suggestion and for watching!

[@markhayes6407]

Great technique. All the parts are available too. I have an Athearn GP38-2 that the railings were lost during a club op session. Now I can fix it with good parts. Thanks for posting.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the program. I am hoping to get Part 2 of this one out fairly soon, which will cover some additional models and stanchion parts, including ones for EMDs. Thanks for watching!

[@conrailfan6277]

Nice work Dan!! You know I had to comment on that Gorgeous Conrail SD40-2, Nice!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm pretty happy with how that one turned out. I'm hoping the other consist build engines will turn out as nice as that one. Thanks for watching!

[@williamflowersrailfannerpr3808]

Nice work can't wait to see it finished

[@DanielCortopassi]

Me, too. I'm looking forward to getting these models done. Thanks for watching!

[@hunterIII-vr4nq]

Fantastic video! Thank you. I'd like to do handrails for my Scale Trains SD40T-2 and 2 white Genesis SD90 MAC- H Demos.

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you found the video helpful. I am working on a Part 2 which I'm hoping to get out in the next couple of months sometime. Thanks for watching!

[@sugarcubeaudio152]

Awesome!! You make it look so easy

[@DanielCortopassi]

I'm glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching!

[@HoboHeaven]

I wish I could buy some Handrails here in Germany.

[@DanielCortopassi]

Unfortunately I don't know too much about the hobby industry outside the USA. I know here in the states we have some retailers that specialize in European trains, but I've never tried to buy detail parts or anything like that from them. I don't know how it works going the other way. Anyway, I hope you liked the video. Thanks for watching!

[@HoboHeaven]

@@DanielCortopassi video ist great. 1st its hard to find the Parts. We have some Dealer specialized in US stuff, but mostly Locos and Cars. When I find something like the Handrails ( yours are hard to find) the shipping costs will kill me ( but an airmal letter isnt that expensive, but most want send packets only) . Its much cheaper to order Stuff from China ( LEDs for example).

[@tacticaldoomer5323]

Hey, Love your rebuilds of older models, they've gotten me into reworking engines too. I Had a quick question, were do you buy your parts from typical? i've always bought stuff off eBay, but its hard to find some of the parts i need

[@DanielCortopassi]

I've bought parts from a variety of sources, including eBay, local hobby shops, online stores, and sometimes direct from the manufacturer (Cannon, KV Models, etc.). Some parts can be hard to find. I've had a tendency to overbuy over the years, so I have a pretty good stash of stuff at this point. Sometimes I'm my own hobby shop, so to speak. Swap meets or train shows can also sometimes be a good source of hard to find items. Thanks for watching!

[@aarongumbinger]

Maybe a stupid question but how do you research the history of the engines that you are modeling? Another informative and interesting video!

[@DanielCortopassi]

In the case of SP, I have a lot of books available that I've collected over the years. I have books on Santa Fe and some other railroads as well, though not as many. I've also built up a reference photo library, both from slides I've purchased and from photos I've found on the internet. I often search for more photos when doing research. It's helpful to pin down approximate dates when paint schemes or certain details changed. I'm glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching!

[@aarongumbinger]

Thank you!

[@dastumer]

Do you know of any stanchion manufacturers other than Precision Scale and KV? What do you do if none of the available stanchions are quite right for your model? I’m currently working on a 3D printed SW1001, and I had to resort to printing stanchions, but I haven’t gotten to trying them yet. Not terribly confident they’ll hold up, but nothing else out there looked right.

[@DanielCortopassi]

Smokey Valley comes to mind. I'm not sure if they're still actively producing parts or not. Sometimes you can find the handrail kits, which include brass stanchions. You could use the stanchions with your own wire, so in theory you could get a kit and use it on a different type of model that has the same kind of stanchions. For example, the B40-8W kit I have would possibly also work for a C40-8W. I did a model of an SP SW1500 using the Precision Scale end stanchions on the sides, since those looked more correct than the usual side stanchions they offer. Keeping them attached is the only drawback, since they lack mounting pins. Thanks for watching!

[@93greenstrat]

I play guitar, so I could probably use my old high E strings (I use 0.]11 steel) for this project.

[@DanielCortopassi]

Those are heavier strings than I use. I could never handle anything above .10s and usually use .09s on my electrics. The guitar string wire is pretty springy. I've never tried to use it for handrails. Steel isn't really good for soldering, but it is good for poking fingers. If I jab myself with brass wire it usually just bends. If you get that to work I think it would be cool, and a great way to bridge interests. Thanks for watching!

[@longviewkelsolines644]

Could you give me a link to where you bought the wire since I need to do that for my Kati rs3

[@DanielCortopassi]

Most of my wire came from my local hobby shop, the Train Shop in Santa Clara, CA. I have bought some online from time to time, but unfortunately I don't have a regular supplier that I could recommend. Thanks for watching!

[@longviewkelsolines644]

@@DanielCortopassi okay thank you I’ll keep looking I might kit bash a set of Athearn rs2 handrails if they have a RS2 locomotive.

[@dougbuchanan9434]

Hey, where's part 2.....😀

[@DanielCortopassi]

It's going to be out a little later than I'd planned, but it is in progress. Thanks for watching!

[@Mauscmkwk]

What’s your opinion on the company aurbor models

[@DanielCortopassi]

They are out of business as far as I know. I've never had one, but from what I've seen, the kits look like a challenging build. For a steam locomotive, I think the mechanism would be the toughest thing to get right. I remember long ago when I first started in HO I tried to build an MDC steam engine kit. It never did run very well. I think the Arbour kits were probably better, but would still need some careful work. Thanks for watching!