Seeking 1890's Passenger Car End Railings

I looked in 2 sources for drawings - the Dover reprint of Forney's 1879 Car Builder's Dictionary, and the Newton K. Gregg reprint of the 1906 Dictionary. The former is too early, and all the end railings shown are plain railing-on-vertical-post types. By 1906, all the new cars shown are closed vestibule. However, figure 577 is a scale drawing of the end of an unidentified narrow vestibule 1st class coach. The drawing has a footnote "The car shown in fig. 577-580 is not a modern design, but is shown for references only, the parts being practically the same in new cars." This suggests the drawings are of a car close to your era of interest. The main end railing has graceful curves on the outsides at floor level, again at waist height, and an upward curve as it joins the narrow vestibule frame. It is supported on each side by a large decorative casting approx 20" wide x

| I looked in 2 sources for drawings - the Dover reprint of Forney's 1879 Car | Builder's Dictionary, and the Newton K. Gregg reprint of the 1906 | Dictionary. The former is too early, and all the end railings shown are | plain railing-on-vertical-post types. By 1906, all the new cars shown are | closed vestibule. However, figure 577 is a scale drawing of the end of an | unidentified narrow vestibule 1st class coach. The drawing has a footnote | "The car shown in fig. 577-580 is not a modern design, but is shown for | references only, the parts being practically the same in new cars." This | suggests the drawings are of a car close to your era of interest. The main | end railing has graceful curves on the outsides at floor level, again at | waist height, and an upward curve as it joins the narrow vestibule frame. | It is supported on each side by a large decorative casting approx 20" wide x | 28" tall with two symmetric interlaced scrolls with the open areas inside | the scrolls filled by a fern leaf design. The car also has similar smaller | scroll and fern castings at the top of the narrow vestibule where it joins | the edge of the car roof. Gregg chose this drawing from his dust jacket | illustration, where it is printed in a scale of 3' = 1 15/16", making it | very easy to scan and send you a .jpg if this is of interest. Geezer

After I posted the message I located a few old Train Shed Cyclopedias and found some drawings as well.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Of course, I'd still love to find a product already made that I can just purchase ;-)

Norm

Cal Scale ( a division of Bowser) makes some end railings in brass that you should look at.

OK. I looked back at an old Binkley Models Catalogue Number One which must date from the late 50's. They offered etched brass end rails very similar to those illustrated in the Gregg Car Builder's reprint (i.e. designed for a narrow vestibule car). The 8 piece set (4 lower handrail pieces plus 4 roof level pieces were included in their kit P-13 "1890 Round Top Window Coach" and also offered separately as part number B-200 (for $0.90). I recently found several old Binkley arch window frame castings in a bargain parts box at a show; there must be some Binkley handrails out there someplace. Geezer.

| OK. I looked back at an old Binkley Models Catalogue Number One which must | date from the late 50's. They offered etched brass end rails very similar | to those illustrated in the Gregg Car Builder's reprint (i.e. designed for a | narrow vestibule car). The 8 piece set (4 lower handrail pieces plus 4 roof | level pieces were included in their kit P-13 "1890 Round Top Window Coach" | and also offered separately as part number B-200 (for $0.90). I recently | found several old Binkley arch window frame castings in a bargain parts box | at a show; there must be some Binkley handrails out there someplace. | Geezer.

I'll have to keep an eye out for them on eBay. Thanks Norm