What color for galvanized supports

how about a photo?

Some mixture of Graphite perhaps?

Rust

Basic reefer gray would be a good choice, IMO.   Most galvanize oxidizes to a cloudy gray pretty quickly.  Maybe an over-spray with some grimy black.  Touch a few fence to post connections with rust, also puddle the rust at the bottom of the poles. Again IMO. 

 Mike CT  

 Here is a photo of what I am trying to do.

Note - the posts are not fastened in so they are crooked.  Also, i will be using braided copper wire for the cables.  This is just what I had at hand to prototype.

Thanks

Ed

Ed, have you thought about fishing line, so as to not scratch as much, in the event of a mishap?

I would try Mike CT's suggestions. That sounds like it would be an awfully close match to galvanized poles to me.

Thank you all for the tips.  I am going to go with the grey and rust combo. This will tive me an opportunity to try my hand at some weathering.

Mike - great idea about the fishing line.  I was concerned about damage from wire cable but felt it would be far less than a 4' drop.  I never gave fishing line a thought.  It has been a long time since fishing days but I seem to remember they made a braided fishing line.  If they still have that I think that would be perdect to use. It would also be much easier to replace in case of a breakage or stretching.

Thanks everyone,

Ed

     Ed when I was younger I built cell towers and when we cut any metal it would have to be recoated with spray galvanizing in an aerosol can like spray paint. You might be able to find it at A industrial paint supply co. Choo Choo Kenny

Fly line is braided, and would be heavy enough. It would still have to be colored, but could possibly be dyed instead of painted? Also braided mason line would work, and may be cheaper then fly line. Make sure it's braided, because it also comes twisted. If you stain the posts darker, they would resemble the old method of guide cable. The tops were tapered to allow water to run off. 

Don

They do still make braided fishing line last I checked.

A saddle shop, shoemaker, coat maker, or similar business would also have some "serious" threads too. Likely thicker.  

Line Color? Black of course, but there are also shades of "bridge green" I'd like too.

Today you might find any color you like.

  50lb test line, or higher can take quite a beating  Musky teeth ain't dull!.

 A few fishing knots would have a nice "finished" look at the tie off and add strength

ED,

The way I make something look galvanized is I spray it with grey primer first and than dust it with silver. I have never tried mixing any colors for brushing. I have only used spray paint. The effect looks great. I see many galvanized structures in my real job and galvanized finishes are never uniform. I like to make the structure look more primer than silver.

Alan Graziano

I was able to find braided mason's line in the home center.  It is the perfect size for the cable and this will work great.  The only colors they stocked were white, yellow, orange and green so I picked up a rool of the white and a bottle of dye. That is tomorrow's project.  I also looked at braided fishing line and it would work just as well only that it would have cost about double for what I need.  Tomorrow i will dye some line and when dry sting it thru some posts.  Thanks for the tips on the fishing and mason's line.

Alan - I am going to try your technique to get the galvanized look. I also want to try and weather it with some rust to it give that old rusting galvanized appearance. Can you give me a little more info about the silver dusting.  Is the silver a weathering power or paint, etc.

Thanks,

Ed

I do it by spraying the piece silver. Then I spray Dull-Cote with some white mixed in, over the silver.

You can change the desired effect simply by using more, or less white, in the Dull-Cote. It gives you that ultra flat, dry, grainy looking surface.

Ed,

You may have solved a problem for me, the wire and dowel is a slick solution, will apply to my layout, I have no success in snapping scored lexan for a clear straight break.

I would suggest painting the wire a steel color with rust overlay( new slightly weathered cable)or just rust (heavily weathered cable) this adds realism as for the dowels for wood effect wood stain or if the dowel is considered as a steel pipe filled with concrete you can use the steel and rust colors used on the wire,flat black(weathered) or possibly yellow.

If you have a local Hobby Lobby they carry Testor's Model Master paints, acrylic and enamel, in 1/2 oz. bottles, check their web site for available colors, I purchased Model Master Enamel Steel and other colors at a local Hobby Lobby, this will save you postage.

You could also use this.

I use a Rustoleum Hammered silver for most all of my galvanized items, railings, staircases, etc.

jim r

John,

I was not able to get the wire taught enough to look good so at the suggestion made earlier I bought some Braided Mason's Line to use for the cable.  The braided line is a perfect diameter and texture really makes it look great.

There is no question the line is strong enough to hold anything that comes at it.  What I did do is switch from pine dowels to oak dowels.  It would take a heck of a shot to snap the oak dowels.  And as was pointed out by an earlier poster, the advantage using this line vs metal wire is there should be less scratches using the braided line.

Thanks,

Ed

Ed,

When I said dust it with silver I meant that I am using silver spray paint. I am just staying pack from the pieces so I do not directly spray it. Doing it this way you will see the silver start to shimmer onto the grey primer. If you put too much silver on, just re-prime and start again until you get the effect that you want.

I never tried Joe's idea of actually using cold galvanizing spray. Using that may make things very easy.

Alan

Thanks Ed for the reply, when you mentioned Mason's line I forgot that this is the string line used in the Mason's level, I have used this level over the years many times, another senior moment. I agree once you pre-tension these three lines and use the intermediate oak posts as sliding supports for the lines and the end posts one as an line anchor post the opposite end post as a sliding post with an inclined and inline drilled hole in the train board outboard of this post for routing the three lines below the train board for anchoring. I would probably use one heavy screw eyelet for tensioning the three lines and one for termination.

The anchoring end post to maintain the required line taughtness will experience a relatively large tension forces from the lines when anchored below the train board on the opposite end. The intermediate posts(line sliding) seen no line tension forces because there is no anchorage to these posts, very wise choice in using oak dowels, they and the end posts will see side loads from a detailed car/locomotive. This system should work for most derailments but may be compromised by train speed coupled with heavy locomotives(especially brass or diecast steam) and bi-level passenger, autorack and double stack well cars with higher center-of-gravity and overturning moments, the post heights, vertical centers of the lines and post centerline distance are the restraint to these overturning moments.

You did a detailed analysis in determining this solution, I do not know your post centerlines distances, the longer these distances the lines will deflect more for a given line taughtness or pre-tension, I also agree that this line material, being nonmetallic, should minimize/prevent scratching, also this line material should be stainable,dyeable and paintable using inexpensive acrylic paints from stores like Hobby Lobby.

I have three questions:

1) What diameter oak dowels are you using for the posts?.

2) Each post has to have three concentric inline drill thru holes for the Mason line.

    Are you crossdrilling these holes using a adjustable vice on a drill press?

3) How are you anchoring the posts to the train board, I use 1/2" plywood?

Thanks in advance Ed for responding to my questions.

Regards,

John

John,

To answer your questions:

1. The dowels are 3/8" oak.  I tried 1/2" and they seemed massive and the 1/4" ones were too small to effectively hold anything.  

2.  I drilled the 3 holes in the dowels on the drill press.  I used an old shop made jig to cradle the dowels and it worked well enough keeping the holes aligned.  

3.  Regards attaching the posts: 

For the upper level I attached the posts to the cross supports (see photo). The support beam is 3/4" thick and I inserted and glued the posts the full 3/4" depth of the support.   The track GarGraves sits on 1/2" ply.  I made the posts 4" in length based on the height of my tallest car which is a double decker.  i think 4" might be a tad to tall but  I have a 55" drop to the floor so better safe than sorry. The spacing for the cables are as follows. 1st cable 3/8" from top of post and the others are spaced 1" apart.  That spacing appears to give me good protection spreading the strength among the 3 cables.

My table is constructed of 1/2" ply base and 1/2" sound board on top.  The posts for the lower level are cut taller to compensate for the 1/2" soundboard. They are also glued into the full depth of the ply.

I tried to have posts every 10" but it varies on the upper level due to the placement of some of the supports.

The braided mason's line looks to be about 3/16" diameter and will surely stretch when installed and tightened. I couldn't find any black locally so I bought some white and dyed it.  Dropped a 100' of line into the dye for a couple of minutes then put the line into a disposable paint tray liner out in the very hot Georgia sun this afternoon and it dried nicely in about an hour.

I haven't had time to check out getting the galvanized look.  I am sure either of the previous suggestions will work.  Can't get to that now until next week.

While certainly not prototypical it does have a really nice look and should function as a good safety net.

I'll post some pics next week after I get the posts finished and the line strung.

Hope that helps,

Ed