Category Archives: Details

Adapting Kadee brake components

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Bill Welch has adapted the HO scale Kadee brake gear and brake wheel detail parts to use in updating other models. Here’s Bill with his techniques.

I have known for awhile now that Kadee sells their assembled brake gear and wheel part direct to consumers. A phone call was recently placed to Sam Clark at Kadee and I ordered a variety of their parts even though I was not sure how I would attach them to models. I know Detail Associates offers brake wheel and gears but they are getting hard to find and they are not a finely rendered as the Kadee parts.

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Uncoupling Devices

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Adding uncoupling devices (cut levers) to plastic freight cars

Here’s a crop of an image showing an uncoupling device installed on a flat car. The original photo is from the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, a special collection of the St. Louis Mercantile Library.

Peter Hall recently sent details on adding a simple detail to box car ends. Here are Pete’s tips and techniques.

An increasing number of today’s excellent plastic injection-molded HO scale models come with uncoupling devices (cut levers), but we still have all those great models that need them. This article shows how to make simple attachment points and wire cut levers for those cars that need bottom-operated uncoupling devices.

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Royal F and Universal Slack Adjusters

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George Toman returns with a technique to build fairly common underframe details. Here’s George with the scoop. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

Detailing freight car underframes has always been a high priority with me. A couple of common slack adjusters are the Royal F Type and Universal Type. I found these fairly easy to replicate using styrene. My goal was to develop a method to accurately construct these parts using common tools. One can be seen in the lead image mounted behind to the brake cylinder on a Milwaukee Road ribside box car.

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