Signal box walkway supports

Inside the fence.
bjuleff
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Signal box walkway supports

Postby bjuleff » Thu Mar 18, 2021 3:36 pm

Hi Folks,

I am currently building a, loosely, Great Northern style signal box and will soon turn attention to the external window cleaning walkways. My plan is to combine the handrail stanchion with the triangular supporting bracket. I have found some suitably overlength stanchions which will be bent through 90 degrees, the horizontal portion of which will be soldered to the support bracket, leaving enough stanchion to fix through holes in the box sides. I have come unstuck searching for a supplier of suitable hollow triangle etches for the supports. In the most basic form these need to be 5 - 6mm along the right angled sides. Could anybody please point me in the right direction of a supplier.

Thanks,
Bob
Bob

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David B
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby David B » Thu Mar 18, 2021 4:08 pm

Have you thought of cutting them from scrap etch?

bjuleff
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby bjuleff » Thu Mar 18, 2021 6:37 pm

Hmmm! Sounds like a soldering nightmare to me!

Bob
Bob

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David B
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby David B » Thu Mar 18, 2021 8:24 pm

It would be no different if you got the etches you asked about. Using scrap etch, you save the cost of etches and make the parts exactly as you want.

Soldering is not a nightmare. Take it slowly, make sure the metal is clean and use very small amounts of solder with a pointed tip to your iron. Good preparation is the key. Simples!

See my 'Understanding Soldering' video for the recent Missenden Spring Weekend.

Steve Carter
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby Steve Carter » Thu Mar 18, 2021 9:54 pm

David B wrote:Soldering is not a nightmare. Take it slowly, make sure the metal is clean and use very small amounts of solder with a pointed tip to your iron. Good preparation is the key. Simples!

See my 'Understanding Soldering' video for the recent Missenden Spring Weekend.


I recommend this as well. David explains soldering very well. Also have a look at his presentation on Resistance Soldering that David did as part of Virtual Scaleforum 2020 https://www.scaleforum.org/demonstrator ... soldering/
Steve Carter

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barrowroad
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby barrowroad » Thu Mar 18, 2021 10:50 pm

The walkway on my Lawrence Hill Signal box is scratchbuilt and made from nickel silver strip and wire.
The handrail supports are made from a length of nickel strip folded over 0.45mm wire and drilled to thread over the upright stanchion of the walkway.
The photos should explain
IMG_3715.JPG

Part of the walkway.
IMG_3716.JPG

A dozen handrail supports.

It looks tedious but it was quite easy after the first couple.
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Enigma
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby Enigma » Fri Mar 19, 2021 2:09 pm

bjuleff wrote:Hmmm! Sounds like a soldering nightmare to me!

Bob

One of the best (and possibly the most important) thing you can do within the model railway hobby is learn to solder. Practice makes perfect. Use any old bits of nickel silver or brass and practice cleaning, tinning, sweating together, how much flux to use, cleaning off excess (which you will have to start with I promise you!) etc.. Do this before you start to try and assemble any kits. The hardest thing with soldering (as with most things in the hobby) is making the first step - as Confucius almost said. Watch the instruction videos - several times if need be - and just do it :thumb

This time next year Wodney you'll be scratch building a Beyer-Garrett. :D

Terry Bendall
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby Terry Bendall » Fri Mar 19, 2021 3:40 pm

Elcot Road signal box .jpg
https://www.scalefour.org/forum/download/file.php?mode=view&id=27475

This is the signal box on Elcot Road before weathering and installation on the layout. Unfortunately the public never see this side. The walkway was made from brass wire and strip. Some 0.7mm diameter wire was used to make the support brackets with the bracing strip a separate part soldered to the main bracket. The boards are from 20 thou thick brass strip saved from the surround of an etched kit, a very useful supply of small pieces of brass. The two sections of the board were soldered to the brackets using a lower melting point solder and the handrail, also made fro 0.7 diameter brass wire was then bent to shape and soldered to the top of the brackets. The walkway is held in place by two short stubs of 0.45 diameter wire which are soldered into holes in the flat face of the brackets. These then fit into holes drilled in the wall of the box. Both the staircase and the walkway were painted before they were fixed in place, but after the weathering was done.

The supports for the lading at the top of the steps are etched brass support made for the platform canopy but something like this could easily be made from brass since only two are needed.

For those who may be interested the box is based on the one at Keymer Junction situated on the London - Brighton main line near Burgess Hill. The brickwork for the base was from the Slaters range and is glued to some 40 thou thick plain styrene to give the thickness required. The main part of the walls are made from clapboard planking from the Evergreen range and the roof from a Wills sheet of slate roofing. Various sizes of Evergreen strip were used to make the corner posts, railings around the entrance landing and other details. The prominent finials on the gable ends were filed from brass.

David B wrote:Using scrap etch, you save the cost of etches and make the parts exactly as you want.

Soldering is not a nightmare. Take it slowly, make sure the metal is clean and use very small amounts of solder with a pointed tip to your iron.


I totally agree. My stock of scrap brass from etched kits, suspension units and similar sources will outlast me.

Terry Bendall
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bjuleff
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby bjuleff » Fri Mar 19, 2021 4:47 pm

Thanks folks for your replies to my post which sought to source an etched component rather than advice on soldering.
Thank you Terry and Barrowroad for some interesting alternatives to my first idea.

Bob
Bob

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David B
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby David B » Fri Mar 19, 2021 7:12 pm

bjuleff wrote:Thanks folks for your replies to my post which sought to source an etched component rather than advice on soldering.


You brought up the subject of soldering, Bob! :) :)

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Guy Rixon
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby Guy Rixon » Fri Mar 19, 2021 7:29 pm

You could look at Scale Link Fretcetera. I think the exact product you want is not in their range, but there are various sets of trusses, in various scales, that might be cut up to get the shapes you want.

bjuleff
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby bjuleff » Sat Mar 20, 2021 11:24 am

Guy,

What a fantastic website and just what I wanted. Thank you for leading me to it!

Bob
Bob

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Will L
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby Will L » Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:04 pm

You may also like to look at the signal components of the Wizard models website there are quite a few triangular brackets on there.

bjuleff
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Re: Signal box walkway supports

Postby bjuleff » Sat Mar 20, 2021 7:00 pm

Hi Will,

Yes, thanks for the idea but it was almost my first port of call and sadly nothing revealed itself of the right size. However the Fretcetera site has got me sorted and an order went in today.

Bob
Bob


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