Adams 02 making Handrails.

Making handrails is always a job that i dont really enjoy.

They are perched on top of the boiler and stand out like a sore thumb if you get it wrong.

So, i may have come up with a way of getting it to look better, or at least making the job a bit more bareable and easier to do.

First of all i take a length of 0.45 Nickel silver wire and thread on the four (in this case) handrail knobs. One short and Three medium.

The knobs need to be tinned with 145°solder, only the shank, dont solder the knobs to the wire.

As this is a white metal kit we then need to add some low melt (70°) solder on top of this. If you are not aware, low melt solder does not take to brass very well.

Drill out the holes in your boiler to 0.95 not forgeting that most handrail knobs are at an angle.

Take your length of wire with your handrail knobs on and push into place. Use plenty of flux and the tinniest of 70° solder on the end of your iron, you should be able to sweat them into place.

While your lentgh of wire is threaded through, this gives you the opportunity to mark the holes where the handrails enter the front of the cab. You can now drill these two holes. Its not to important to drill these straight, i tend to use a 0.60 drill as they will be filled with solder later.

 A nice straight line of handrail knobs.

I could not take photos of the next bit as i ran out of hands. Bending a piece of 0.45 ns wire at its centre point, i find a tin of humbrol paint is ideal, applying some heat to the wire from a lighter, tensiles the wire and it pritty much stays in a nice arch.

You can then bend one side at 90° and thread through one side of your boiler. Add the last Two handrail knobs, that's the Two that go in the front of the smoke box. Do not solder these.

This then gives you the line of sight to bend up the other side.

Pulling the handrail back through, you can then thread both sides through at the same time. Pull them through into the cab while making sure your Two Handrail knobs on the smoke box front, are located correctly, then solder the handrail to the inside of the cab.

 Its up to you whether you solder the Two smoke box knobs in but i never bother nor do i solder the handrail to its knobs at any point.

Job done. I hope this helps, it always annoys me that in magazine are instruction sheets they just say "now fit handrails" but no one ever tells you how. Now you know.

Thank you for looking and dont forget to comment and hit the 'follow' button.