# Brake Hoses that really attach - anyone try this?



## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

I was wondering the other day if anyone has made some air hoses that really attach between cars?  It seems like it would not be that hard but I haven't seen any manufacturers do this so maybe it is harder than I'm thinking or not worth the effort?  For folks that have automated coupling/uncoupling I image this would be difficult and not even desireable.  But when I hook up a train and run it I usually run it for a while.  For close up pics of a train it looks strange for the air hoses not to be connected.

What are your thoughts?


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

I've heard of folks using small magnets to keep hoses connected. I don't recall if it was in this scale, or one of the ride-on scales. I just ordered a bunch of 1/8" rare-earth magnets for another project, which may be ideal for such an application. The magnets may be stronger than the joints between the hose and brake castings, so you may want to secure them a bit tighter with some fine wire or something. 

Later, 

K


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## Eric M. (Jan 3, 2008)

While magnets are a cool idea they are not necessary because Hartford Products sells brake hose sets that can be connected together in the prototypical way.  I have many of these brake hoses installed on my cars.  It is rather fiddly but they can indeed be connected.  By the way, the glad hands and angle cocks that come with these sets are the best looking castings you will find.  The look way better than the Ozark ones.  Here is a picture of my heavy duty flat car with the hoses installed:










Unfortunately I do not have a better picture right now but if you look closely you will see that the angle cock valve handle is in the closed position.  I modified the castings so the valve handles are movable.  If I want maximum authenticity I will link the hoses between cars move the valves to open and then leave the valve closed on the last car.

Here is the picture of the kit from hartfords site:








As you can see it comes with angle cocks with a short length of "pipe", valve handles, hose clamps, glad hands, mounting brackets and rubber hose.

Regards,

Eric


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## stanman (Jan 4, 2008)

I didn't attach air hoses, but I have run electrical wiring between coaches that might provide an idea.

Coupled: http://gold.mylargescale.com/stanman/Coupled.jpg

Uncoupled: http://gold.mylargescale.com/stanman/Uncoupled.jpg


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## Burl (Jan 2, 2008)

Eric:  What scale are the Hartford air hoses?  Are they whitemetal castings, like the Ozark version?


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## Eric M. (Jan 3, 2008)

Hi Burl,

They are 1:20.3 and yes, they are white metal.

Regards,

Eric


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## mhutson (Jan 2, 2008)

I believe the ones made by Precision Scale connect in a prototypical manner. I had a pair 10+ years ago and they worked fine. 

Cheers, 
Matt


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## John McGuyer (Jan 2, 2008)

I've made new patterns for the Ozark 1/20.3 ones and they are up to the detail of the Hartford ones and should connect. 

John


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## Bill Swindell (Jan 2, 2008)

Here is what I do for MU cables. They aren't as nice as the air hoses shown but I use them to pass power between engines.


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## gnichols (Jan 9, 2008)

Eric,  that is one amazing load on your flat car.  Did you make it?  Scale?  Assume 1/20?  I'd LOVE to get one.  Thanx, Gary


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## llynrice (Jan 2, 2008)

Even if a model of a brake hose is well enough done that the gladhands will join correctly, I should think that such fine detail might wear out fairly quickly.  If you really like the appearance of connected brake hoses, a possibility might be to have sets permanently joined and the car bodies set up so that the shut off valves are friction fitted into the bodies so that the cars can still be disconnected.  For the back of the car (or caboose) at the very end of the train, you could insert the normal valve along with its single piece of hose.  Seems like a lot of work, but it could look quite believable.

Llyn


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## Sourdoh (Jan 6, 2008)

I tried this and my problem was that the hoses were too stiff to allow the car to articulate against the next car easily enough. In some cases the pressure was just enough to push the car into a derailment on a rough piece of track or a switch. I think the answer is to make up a set of hoses permanently glad-handed together to use for photos. Or, if you run the same cars together on a regular basis, just make up pairs using very flexible material for the hoses to go between those cars.


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## Big65Dude (Jan 2, 2008)

Sourdoh (et al.)

I agree that using scale-sized gladhand castings (the Hartford ones _are_ the best, BTW) would be tricky, to say the least. But in the case of the hose itself, I'd recommend using black surgical rubber tube, available from most medical supply houses. It's extremely strong and flexible and doesn't need to be painted. I've used it for not only gladhands but for feedwater lines between tenders and locos with great success.


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## Eric M. (Jan 3, 2008)

I will have to check out those new Ozark ones  Llyn, as far as wear is concerned It's not really an issue for me because I only connect them on "special occasions"  Most of the time I just "let em' hang"/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blink.gif  They don't wear when they are connected because they actually sort of lock together.

Gary,  the thresher is a custom built product meant to be a companion to die cast farm tractors such as the Case Millennium steam tractor that Ertl produced some years back.  They are made by a guy in Minnesota.  The scale is 1:16  The thing is, real threshing machines came in all sizes, and this is a model of a small one, so it passes for 1:20 scale.

For a video of the threshing machine being pulled by my 1:20 scale custom live steam tractor have a look at this:



If you want to find out how to get your own threshing machine contact me offline.

Regards,

Eric


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

ERic, 
Great video, thanks


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## John McGuyer (Jan 2, 2008)

I tried to post pictures of the new Ozark patterns using the Add Reply. It calls up the picture but refuses to post anything. Useless supposed feature. 

John


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## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

John, do you have a link?


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

I had been wanting to play with this for some time.  I have bought all sort of magnets to experiment with and finally settled on a system.   Jack had told me about the surgical tubing earlier and it is really neat stuff to work with.   I put some brass scraps together and I now have working gladhands.   They cost less than $1 a pair.










After the cars are coupled together, I just nudge one of the hoses towards the other and "snap", they're connected.   To get them apart, I can just move them with a finger, or I can hold one of the cars in place and let the locomotive pull them apart.   Neat stuff.


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## Big65Dude (Jan 2, 2008)

Bruce,

That's really terrific! 

More details on the magnetic gladhands, please. Where did you get them? Do you have to cut and/or shape them? How do you rig them up? Etc.


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Jack,
Nothing fancy at all on the glad hands; rather crude compared to the castings available.  /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/doze.gif










I tooks some 3/16" x 1/16" brass strip  that I had and cut them to size, about 1/4" long.   I round the corners, cut a 1/16" notch in them, and drill a 1/8" hole.    I then solder in a piece of 1/16" rod.   This is the part that holds it in the surgical tubing.

The magnet is a 1/8" diameter x 1/16" thick that I got from K & J Magnetics.  It goes in the hole drilled along with a spot of CA glue.

Yep, not quite the detail as the Hartford ones, but I do like the way that they work.


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

BTW, I also epoxied one of those magnets onto a Hartford Gladhand and replaced their air hose with the surgical tubing - works just great.


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## John McGuyer (Jan 2, 2008)

Just wanted to see if this [email protected]#$% forum would actually post something. 










These are the Ozark patterns 

John


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## Big65Dude (Jan 2, 2008)

Here's something I had in my posting for my J&S coaches in answer to Jim's question on how I rigged my working gladhands: 


I used neodymium disc magnets that I got from *K&J Magnetics, Inc.* Just a couple of bucks for fifty of 'em.



Website: http://www.kjmagnetics.com/














1/8" dia. x 1/16" thick



Grade N48 - Nickel Plated



Axially Magnetized



This size is also available in grade N50 with black nickel plating as part number *D21B*.



I drilled a 1/8" hole in *Evergreen* .060" strip styrene, CA'ed the disc magnet in so it was flush on both sides, then used a razor saw to cut tapered long and short ends, then rounded them off. I glued the long end into the hose made of very flexible surgical rubber in a vertical orientation (see below.)














Because of the disc magnet's polarity, you need to make sure that your gladhands at one end of a car are mounted up-side-down relative to the other end, and that all your cars are done the same way. This means that you'll always have to couple "A" ends to "B" ends (which I usually do anyway.) Once you've coupled up, push the hoses towards each other and they'll snap together. The magnets are very strong and hold well, but when you uncouple, they shear off and disconnect very realistically.



In my first attempt to make the airhoses connect with magnets, I used thinner ones that I got from the same place - 1/8" dia. x 1/32" thick - glued directly to the gladhand casting. I encountered two problems with this approach however: the first was getting the magnetic polarity right - sometimes they would repel each other or connect on the sides rather than face to face; and second, even when they did connect correctly, the thinner magnets weren't strong enough to stay connected, they kept coming apart.



I suppose I could have used the thicker discs, but that makes the gladhands look distorted and I'd still have the polarity problem anyway. That's why I came up with the "omni-directional" scratch-built ones as shown above. They may not look as good as the stock castings, but they work great and _do_ look good when connected.


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

Bruce and Jack, Great solution to the problem!! I had thought of that but never tried it. Thanks for posting.


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

That's a great idea Bruce....good post.


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