trust Blake’s modeling judgment when it comes to things like this. With that modeling advice taken to heart, I called up Tichy Trains and ordered a whole bunch of that wire. The next phone call I made was to
Atlas. I knew that if I was going to be cutting the RS-1 handrails apart, there would be a good chance that I would lose or damage part of the original handrails. I ordered a few sets of RS-1 handrails as well as some other miscel- laneous items. Within a few days the mailman was knocking on my door with those two packages, and I had what I needed to get started. It was now time to firmly commit to this proj- ect and start cutting things apart. The first thing I did was to remove all of the Atlas handrails from the walkways. They can be separated from the walkways quite easily by using a dull hobby knife. I gently slid the blade
between the stanchion base and the walkway and then twisted the blade away from the walkway. This motion slides the stanchion from the walkway gently enough to avoid damage. I did this all the way down the walkway and the entire handrail assembly was free. The end railings are a little different. The stanchion presses into the center of the walkway and also connects to the pilot via the handrail end. Using the dull blade, I pried the stanchion upward. I cut the handrail end and left a little nub of plastic in the pilot. I fig- ured I would attach the wire handrail to this nub rather than filling holes in the pilot and re-drilling holes. With all of the handrails free, I put the model aside in a safe place and started a little handrail demolition. My plan of attack was to cut the
stanchions apart from the handrails. After all, it was the handrails that
were heavy looking, not the stanchions. Once the stanchions were separated, I could drill a small hole in the very top part of the stanchion right where the handrail would go. I could then run the .0125″ phosphor bronze wire through the hole in the tip of the stanchion. Okay, a good plan, but I was worried that I would not be able to drill the stanchion end accurately. Well,
it
turned out that it was far easier than I could have ever imagined it would be. With my pointer finger of my right hand, I held the stanchion down. With my left hand I drilled the little hole in the stanchion with a pin vise. The drill bit never wandered and I made no mis- takes. This might have been the first time in recorded history I did anything without making some kind of mistake. It is a somewhat tedious exercise, drilling all of those stanchions, but I found that by taking frequent breaks,
A pin vise was used to drill the end of each stanchion to accept the phosphor bronze wire (above). After drilling, the end stanchion was
reattached to the frame (above right). Cyanoacrylate was used to at- tach the stanchions after making sure they stood straight (below).
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
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