AccurailScale Size Accumate Coupler | HO scale magnetic coupler that is a correctly scaled and proportioned representation of the prototype. | Alan Gibson (Workshop)The Bungalow,Church Road, Lingwood, Norwich,Norfolk NR13 4TR, United Kingdom Telephone/Fax: (44) 1603 715862 (Mon-Sat 8am to 6pm only) 33" Plain Wheelsets: P870036" Plain Wheelsets: P870140" Plain Wheelsets: P870336" 10 Spoke Wheelsets: P870240" 10 Spoke Wheelsets: P8702930 mm 8 Spoke Bogie Wheel: P87361100 mm 12 Spoke Bogie Wheels:P87431240 mm 12 Spoke Bogie Wheels:P87491841 mm 18 Spoke Divers: P8772Brass Axle Bearings: P8763Back to Back Gauge: P8766Track and Check Gauge | All wheels are turned steel tyres with injection molded plastic centres pressed in. Wheelsets have 22.7 mm steel axles but can be specified with 24.5 or 25 mm axles instead; their tyres are chemically blackened. Driving wheels and bogie wheels come with 1/8th inch and 2 mm axles respectively. Back to back gauge is precision ground steel. |
Australian Journal of Railway Modelling | Several articles in the Proto:87 Journal have been reprinted from the Australian Journal of Railway Modelling and its precursor, Branchlines Modeller. Here you can get subscription information, and see the tables of contents to all their issues. |
BC ModelsP.O. Box 540885Merritt Island, FL 32954 (407) 639-3649 Arch Bar Trucks | BC Models has 36 styles of arch bar trucks. He's packaged just the sideframes and bolsters into a kit for Proto:87 conversions. The price is just $2.50 for a pair of trucks; you have to trim the bolsters (unless you use the 26.5 mm axles) and solder to the side frames. |
BrassmastersPO Box 1137,Sutton, Coldfield, West Midlands, B76 1FU, U.K. Tieplates for flat bottom rail | Brassmasters is producing tie plates for flat bottom rail which has a foot 1.8 mm wide (eg. Peco code 75 and 82). They include a half-etched recess for the rail and fully etched holes. The type 1 and 2 plates measure 5mm x 2.5mm. The type 9 measure 7mm x 2.5mm. Each fret contains 9 types of baseplate as follows:
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Details WestPO Box 61,Corona, California 91718 RB-919 Turnout rail brace (adjustable) 12 for $2.95RB-920 Turnout rail brace (rigid) 12 for $2.95JB-921 3 bolt rail bar (fishplate) 12 for $2.95JB-922 2 bolt rail bar (fishplate) 12 for $2.95 | These lovely little white metal detail castings are just what the doctor ordered for those among us who have a penchant for accurate North American track. The joint bars are designed for code 70 or 83 rail. They nestle nicely against the web of code 70 rail; however, they interfere with the wheel flanges on the inside of the rail. For code 83 applications, on the other hand, they should work fine on either side of the rail. These are finely detailed parts that include both nuts and bolt-heads. If there is one nit to pick, it is that all the castings are so detailed the viewer can tell there should be a difference between the inside and the outside of the rail. The rail braces appear to be designed for code 70 rail, but again should be usable for code 83 as well. They will fit nicely on a standard 8" wide tie. Interestingly, they have a pin cast in the bottom which could be inserted into a hole so they provide real support to the rail. Again, this is a piece that has been missing for some time. The rigid brace is a simple three-spike brace. The adjustable one includes a wedge which the track workers can use to precisely vary the gauge. Details West also produce a number of other track detail parts including hot box and drag detectors, flange lubricators and various switch stands. Send them a self-addressed stamped envelope for details. |
Grandt Lines Products1040 Shary Court,Concord, Ca, 94518, USA. Code 70 Joint barsSpike heads | Both items are to 1/4-inch scale, but are still fairly reasonable for HO. The joint bars are a little longer than would be prototypical for HO but have about the right thickness. They're plastic, so they are inexpensive and go into place easily with a drop of CA. The spike heads are also plastic and I also use CA after drilling a small hole and placing them into position. They again are large for HO but are much closer to scale than anything else. I use the spike heads at turnouts in conjunction with the tieplates mentioned below. _ David Soderblom
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Monongohela InnoventionsP.O. Box 204,Myerstown, PA, 17067, USA. TieplatesJoint bars | Monongohela Innoventions sells HO tieplates and joint bars for rail sizes 100, 83, 70 and 55. They are not outstanding, but definitely an improvement for handlaid turnouts. All are photoetched .005" brass, so they're on the thin side compared to the prototype. Real joint bars are at least an inch thick; tieplates are no thinner than 1/2". The tieplates are flat but have four holes each etched into them. The inner pair is such that their inner edges align with the base of the rail, just as you'd expect, and the outer pair of holes is about halfway from the inner ones to the edge of the tieplate. Having those holes there obviously makes it a lot easier to drill for the spikes. On turnouts, I assemble them onto PC board ties and solder the rails and tieplates all at once, holding it all in place and in gauge first with spikes. Under the points I use small pieces of brass cut from the strips Simpson sells. Some tieplates get cut in half so as to fit in tight places near converging rails (at the frog and near the points). _ David Soderblom
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NorthWest Short LineBox 423,Seattle, WA, 98111-0423, USA. 37615-4 28", 1.015 pointed axle $7.95 (4) | These wheels are made of solid nickel silver and are non-magnetic. Note that these are true Proto:87 wheels. NWSL's old code 72 wheels and the "P:HO" (code 64 wheels with standard HO back to back spacing) are not listed. |
Peco | Flat-bottom rail provides major headaches for British P4 modellers, especially in the field of pointwork construction. Peco recently came to the rescue with a range of near-scale components for plain track construction. It represents recent BR practice of cast rail baseplates and Pandrol rail clips, and is quite impressive. You have to lay each ABS plastic baseplate individually, though! This system, which is described more thoroughly in the June, 1995 issue of Railway Modeller may be usable by Proto:87 modellers. _ Francis Knight
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Proto:87 StoresEd McCamey's Standards Gauge | This is a very accurate EDM-cut standards gauge. Track gauge, check gauge, tyre width, wheel check, and flangeway measurements are on each side of the gauge. The gauge is made in .050" thick stainless steel. Both Proto:87 and Proto:87n3 measurements are on the gauge. |
Frog kits |
These frog kits are designed to be as close to the basic prototype appearance as practically possible. They are correctly to scale in nearly all dimensions, while maintaining good visual compatibility with existing NMRA standard code 70 and 55 model rail sections. They are also compatible with Proto:87 operating standards. They can easily be "superdetailed" by the discerning modeler to an almost perfect prototypical appearance. |
ProtoScale5, rue des Anciens Combattants,F59175, Templemars, France. Wheel and track gauges33", 36", 40" wheelsetsWood or printed circuit tiesCode 75 bullhead rail, Code 55, 70 flat bottom railChairs for bullhead railJoint barsTie strapsWagon - wood panelled SNCF standard A: A601Wagon - Wood panelled SNCF standard B: A602Wagon - SNCF standard B permaplex: A603Wagon - PLM perishables: A605Wagon - PLM perishables (English): A606Wagon - flat OCEM 19: A620 | These etched brass kits make up into beautiful representations of their prototypes. Truly first rate stuff. _ René Gourley
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Railway Engineering621 Appleblossom Lane,Sun Valley, NV, 89433, USA. #8 turnouts | These turnouts are hand made on printed circuit (PC) board material, so they'll hold their gauge. They are also available with wooden ties epoxied between the PC ties. See the review in Proto:87 Journal #8.
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Right-O-WayLouis R. Cross,23682 Road 15-3/4, Chowchilla, CA, 93610, USA. Code 83 rail | Right-O-Way sells rail that's drawn to prototypical dimensions. They are oriented toward O Gauge (for which they also make track components such as rail braces and cast frogs and switch points), and so the smallest rail they offer is Code 83, but it has a _very_ nice cross section that I would urge people to check out. One potential drawback is that the web is quite thin, so greater care will be needed to file rails for points and frogs. _ David Soderblom |
Sergent Engineering7620 Crestland Rd.Knoxville, TN 37938 phone (865) 938 2852 HO Scale AAR Type E Coupler | Accurate HO scale couplers |
Teichmann's Special-ModelleSchmiedeacker 435041 Marburg-Haddamshausen Germany HOpur Profile Lathe Tool | This 6x6x100 mm Cobalt-12 steel tool lets lathe users turn their own wheels to the HOpurr profile. Its availability is sure to result in an explosion of activity in modelling to the HOpurr specification. |
Willy Kosak Verlagsgesellschaft mbHBurgstraSe 17D-91284 Neuhaus Germany fax: (49) 91 56 / 10 17 Hp1 Eisenbahnmodellbau heuteConversion Kit for Roco-V 100 locomtive11.5 mm Diam Wheelsets | This high quality glossy German magazine is devoted to finescale modelling. The inaugural issue has quite a bit of HOpurr content, including a very nice article on laying a highly detailed HOpurr switch. Subsequent issues have dealt with building a 2-8-2 tank engine which is also in HOpur. I believe this is the first diesel locomotive conversion kit available for HOpurr. The wheelsets come with 21.3 mm pinpoint axles.
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