# Lost Wax Bronze castings by TRS



## rbednarik (Jan 2, 2008)

Announcing a Triple R Services exclusive product.

Castings in high quality jewelery grade Bronze. These have been pulled from exact models of the original Aster parts. 

All detail faithfully reproduced as per the original parts, long since unavailable from the Aster spares department. 

*Side frame parts and pilot castings (finished castings on bottom):*








*(L-R) Marker Lights, Water overflow drains, Headlight brackets:* 








* Marker Light (Original on right, Finished casting on left):*








*

*Available now:**


Aster PRR K4 Marker light top (2 per sprue)
Aster PRR K4 Marker light base (2 per sprue)
Aster PRR K4 Pilot
Aster PRR K4 Headlight Base
Aster PRR K4 Tender truck side frames
Aster PRR K4 water overflow drains
*Also Available:*


PRR headlight casting (1:32 scale with slots for side numberboards)

More photos available here: TRS Castings

Contact us directly for more details and pricing 
tr3services[atsign]gmail[dot]com
www.realsteamservices.com


***Coming Soon:***


 Aster GS-4 Marker lights (Tender)
Aster GS-4 Smokestack
Aster GS-4 Inner Smokebox door
Aster GS-4 Outer Smokebox door
Aster NYC Hudson brake shoes (Tender)
Aster NYC Hudson Marker lights (Engine)
Aster Mikado detail kit parts (pipe brackets, check valves, etc)
 
Enquiries welcome for castings of other parts. If you have an original part we can produce castings from it! Our shrinkage on final products averages less than 1% and most castings are exactly the same as the original dimensions. 

Contact us for more details:
tr3services[atsign]gmail[dot]com
www.realsteamservices.com


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## StackTalk (May 16, 2014)

Very nice Ryan and Charles. 

You guys are quite obviously an asset to the hobby community.

Cheers,

Joe


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## clifforddward (Jan 2, 2008)

Great service you are providing by making these parts available to the market....thanks!


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## Two Blocked (Feb 22, 2008)

Verrrry nice!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

i could not find the pricing, is it on the site?

Greg


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## rbednarik (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg,

Contact us off list for pricing at the email listed above. New page on the site will be up shortly.


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## zubi (May 14, 2009)

Ryan, what a fantastic idea! I hope you will be able to expand the range of castings to offer some generic rolling stock parts in the future. Best wishes from Tokyo, Zubi


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## JimB (Jan 25, 2013)

Those look great. James


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## rbednarik (Jan 2, 2008)

Zubi,

If you have suggestions for what is of interest in castings for rolling stock let me know. If you have examples we may be able to work with something. At the moment we are focusing on 1:32 scale castings since the market is very devoid of them, but enquiries welcome for other scales.


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## bigsteam (Mar 6, 2008)

Ryan:

How are you handling the shrinkage in going from the Aster pattern to a rubber mold to a wax casting from the mold to a bronze casting from the invested wax?

Usually patterns are a set percentage oversize to compensate for shrinkage.

Standard practices would suggest that the wax would be smaller, casting shrinkage, from the original Aster master and then there would be additional shrinkage in the brass casting when removed from the flask after being poured.

This would not matter if using the part for a scratch build, but could be a problem if replacing a broken part where thye duplicate would not match the dimensions of the original.


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## zubi (May 14, 2009)

Bigsteam, I do not know how Ryan solved the problem but with the availability of 3D printing enlarging a part by a few percent is just a press of a button... Best wishes from Tokyo, Zubi


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## zubi (May 14, 2009)

Ryan, 1:32 is not really my cup of tea. I think you started the best possible way - that is introducing parts which are discontinued on Asters. There is a huge number of Asters and many parts are no longer available. You could offer replacements and perhaps also improved parts, detail, etc. In narrow gauge - which is my exclusive interest, generic parts are required for scratch building. I believe standard gaugers do not scratch build rolling stock much as most of it is not wooden but steel in real life, making scratch building much more involved. But even there, generic trucks, brake, piping, etc. detail might be interesting to some. Anyway, I will give this some more thought in the future. It is great to see that you are providing this service. Now that Bob Hartford sold his business yet again and Bill Davis discontinued his magnificent rolling stock projects and sold out all the remaining parts, I may be needing a few custom parts for my projects. The trouble is I have too many of them and no time for playing trains anymore... Best wishes from Tokyo, Zubi


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## rbednarik (Jan 2, 2008)

The dimensions of the cast parts and the originals are within .001-.005" of one another. The foundry and molds used are of very high quality, usually making jewelry and other high tolerance parts . 

Certain items have been drawn up for 3D printing, while others were pulled direct from originals as an experiment with these excellent results. 

In short, the shrinkage rate at the foundry is known, the molds are done with high quality materials. This results in a tolerance that is acceptable to the original standards. 

These are also not Brass castings, but Bronze, which has somewhat differing shrinkage rates.










As you can see from this photo, the reproduction headlight bracket fits perfectly into the 1984 vintage smokebox front, with the locating pin holes and the mounting screw hole all lining up as per the original part.

Of course there will be some variance between the parts. Even the original castings are notorious for this! We are keeping this in check by CAD drawing the originals where exacting tolerances are critical and pulling waxes from compensated 3D printed masters


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

Are you guys casting the parts yourself or do you have it done? They look very good!


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## Jim Overland (Jan 3, 2008)

cool!


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## Nick Jr (Jan 2, 2008)

Eric, just curious, what difference does that make?


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## rbednarik (Jan 2, 2008)

Castings are done by a firm in NY, who specialize in jewelry and other precious metals.


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## David Leech (Dec 9, 2008)

Ryan,
They look to be great castings.
I am sure that they are not cheap though!
Anyway, reading the word jewellery reminds me of something that happened to me many years ago!
I lost my original supplier of British door handles when they closed down, and no-one took on the business.
I did however find a local jewellery lady who very kindly offered to experiment for me and see what she could do from samples of handles and roof vents that I gave her.
My castings were just to be brass.
After a couple of weeks she called me to say that she had some examples and for me to go over.
I arrived to find her polishing every handle, front and back, as though it was a piece of priceless jewellery.
Lovely castings, but she said that she would not be able to take on my work as the brass made too much smoke in her pristine workshop - but if I could take them in silver or gold, no problem.
Not sure if my customers would want silver or gold handles and roof vents on their coaches!
Cheers,
David Leech, Delta, Canada


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## rbednarik (Jan 2, 2008)

David,

Then you could have offered different levels of quality for the cars. Silver, Gold and Platinum! 
Obviously the steerage class cars should not have any precious metal for the vents or handles, but for first class cars, it fits so wonderfully! 

The cost per casting is reflected in the quality, but so far nothing has been prohibitive in the purse string department. To date the highest cost has been with the tender trucks simply because of the amount of metal being poured and having to have two molds for the components that make up a side frame. 

Most of the parts shown range (roughly) from $5-$50 each. For the sake of not being too commercial that is just a range to give you an idea. 



We are open to suggestions on new castings or replacements for old unavailable parts to produce. If anyone has suggestions, any and all are certainly welcomed.


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## du-bousquetaire (Feb 14, 2011)

Hi there:
These are very nice castings, indeed. When I was able to purchase an Aster PRR K4, it was fortunatly one of those converted by the late Tony Hall Patch to meth, it was in good shape except that obviously one of it 's tender trucks had been broken. It had been replaced with two thick brass sideframes with a resin casting of the original trucks.This was full of bubles and did not have the brake shoe detail nor was it opened through. I ordered from Ryan a set of castings and in one evening these were drilled and tapped and the axle holes were reamed and the whole truck was restored to original state and level of detail. Fortunatly the truck stretchers bolts and springs had been kept in the repair of the precedent owner and things just fell in place very well. Now my K4 is restored to it's original very detailed aspect. I am very happy for this because she is also a very good performer.


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## du-bousquetaire (Feb 14, 2011)

While I am at it it would be very interesting to produce some generic parts not available such as coach bogies Six wheel and four wheel for builders, also brake cylinders and triple valves etc, roof vents. I may make paterns for making some pensylvania trucks, .as these are different from every other make. I think that I finally figured out why "the standard railroad of the world" made all of it's paterns differently from every one else. Its to not have to pay patent royalties. Smart those boys at Juniata! Anyways this would be a big help for those who want to build their own, like it's done in other scales.


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## josephunh (Mar 27, 2013)

Congrats in offering replacement parts this can be a great boon for folks who own the items and can't get replacements and the kit bashers out there looking for parts. I will repeat what some others have said too in that hope you will do 1:29 scale too. Only other question is do you also over lenses for the marker lights?


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## zubi (May 14, 2009)

...not to mention offering glass for headlights! I spent/wasted considerable time on looking for such glasses - all in vain. Also, glass for windows might be interesting for some people, although more likely for passenger cars than for locomotives. Best wishes from Tokyo, Zubi


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

Zubi - Glass for headlamps you can get from GS Supplies. .5mm increments.


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## zubi (May 14, 2009)

Great info! Thank you Jay, Zubi


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