Scale Model Insulators

Only other ones I know of are the parts for the GG1 pantographs as well as the depressed center transformer car.

Seems like a good candidate for some nice resin castings... Spend some time making some masters and just reproduce them.

Bob, did you make those insulators or purchase from a dealer/manufacturer?

My bet is the insulators are House of Duddy. I cannot find the link but there is a gentlemen on the list that makes or has someone make PRR H style catenary poles and insulators. I have seen no comments for the insulators but the poles have drawn some interest for detail. Someone will chime in with the link.....

Dennis

Thanks Bob!

They are House of Duddy. I had him send me samples years ago when I was foolish enough to contemplate making a working scale PRR style catenary. I came to my senses eventually. But those are definitely his product.

I have considered casting certain parts such as missing components for Platicville and other buildings but just do not know where to get started.

Can someone point me to some sites where I could read up on this and see if it is something I'd could and would want to do?

Also anyone that has experience if you would like to share some pointers etc. please email me at my profile or post here. I just do not want to hijack this thread.

Thanks!

Dave

I have molds for casting these insulators and have cast upwards of 2000 of them for a few customers. 

I just opened some resin for casting parts for one of my trolleys, so I could be enticed to cast a few of these at this time.

I sell them cheap - $0.05 ea -- but you get to drill the hole in them,  

I also have a mold for those insulators that go under the pantographs.....

Here are some 3D printed insulators.

they are a bit pricey $30 for 91 "plates"

he also makes some very nice PRR caternary.

Bob

Trainman,

I have a small bag of them that I purchased from Ed Duddy a number of years ago. Send me an e-mail and let me know how many you are looking for.

If Ed ever calls me again (he is in a military nursing home) I will try to find out who produced the insulators for him.

Alan Graziano

didn't Ed pass away this year?

Yes, he did. I believe someone did gain access to Ed's remaining inventory. A friend of mine claims he is purchasing 20 GG1 bodies from the inventory. No mechanisms - just bodies.

I clearly have to charge more for my resin cast insulators, 

Bob,

I completely forgot that  I responded to a post and gave my condolences. 

Rest in peace Ed.

Alan Graziano

At the Strasburg 2 rail scale show on Saturday, I talked to Phil Kehr owner of K&P Brick & Building. A detail on one of his kits was an industrial transformer that had insulators just like the ones pictured above. He will sell the insulators separately. You can contact him at kpbrick AT aol.com.

Bob

The type of insulators discussed in this thread are known as suspension insulators. 

Here's the current Locke catalog:

OSHA Article with pictures

If anyone has insulator questions, ask me here. I've collected them for over 40 years.

Good stuff. Keep it coming!

I've found small post insulators, as for 34.5 kV pole mount at my LHS - in gray plastic sprues in small plastic bags.  Not sure what company: if memory serves they were in bags similar to and about the same plastic color as Tichy Train but not sure they were.

I made a couple of substations for a smaller-scale layout I had some years ago and used self-tapping screws for the post insulators on transformers and for bus work.  The slide below gives the general idea although I found some that had a finer thread (more per inch) that made it harder to see they had a single spiral thread rather than multiple circular ridges.

Here are three small substations I built for a previous layout - one "downtown" two-transformer/brick walled substation and two single-transformer rural substations.

Great post!

I've been doing some serious web research on electrical transmission and sub-stations and found that ABB's large circuit breakers have silicon ribs on their large insulators that are actually spirals, not individual rings. In other words, a screw thread could be prototypical. The insulator's core is a fiberglass tube with a very specially designed spiral silicon casting.

The rib's shape is designed to shed rainwater and provide the longest electrical path possible to protect against corona arcing. This breaker is a 500,000 volt + unit. I am NOT planning on making a model of such a serious electrical station.

Not sure if any of these fasteners can be used for this application. Check here...

These also look promising. HD..

Yes. That's great! Those black fine-threaded fasteners would be very good for the high voltage side of the station. I'm going to order a pile of them. I've ordered some samples from Alliance Plastics. 

My sample order arrived from Alliance Plastics. Of the three different black fasteners, two won't work, but one will work terrifically. It scales out to about 10 inches wide and 20" long. Which, on its own, would make a nice insulator, but there's nothing to stop you from drilling it and coupling more than one together. Here it is with the head and tail cut off.

Even the shape of the ridges are tapered in a way that almost matches ceramic insulators perfectly.

The other two have a nice shape, but they have partial cutouts of the ridges rendering them useless for our purposes.

It's a shame since this size would make good telephone poles high-voltage insulators. 

I've also ordered the San Juan Car Company's telephone insulators. I've haven't seen them yet, but since they're actually listed as telephone pole insulators. I had to negotiate a cheaper shipping prices and I discussed this in the Telephone Pole thread.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I went to Home Depot and bought the long shutter fasteners. I experimented today making a little substation. I cut the the large head off, drilled a hole and inserted the neck into the hole. I shortened the piece to see how it would look.

Added a little gray paint to the body. Still need to add some other details.

Here is a step up transformer that might help with what you are trying to make.

Any crafts store has a variety of plastic beads you can stack together onto a paneling nail or floral wire.

Nice transformer and those station posts look very good!!!

Thank you Techie. It is a simple attempt. Steve on the other hand has the touch.