Glad-Hands

[Harold_V]

Chris...ever consider wiping a little bit of silicone or Teflon grease across the face of the O-rings? Worth a try?

I've used the silicone grease on the small O-rings in Clippard quick connectors. Makes it a lot easier to thread the female fitting on the male fitting. Can get a tube of either material for under $10 that should last a long time. As usual, once you start with a material...you find other uses for it as well. Carl B.

I have and am worried about the grease collecting dust and grim.
I have found using a cup of water to dip the ends into will make then slick enough to connect but drys up so it does not collect dust and grim quickly.
I use the same Clippard quick connects on the other end of the tube with the glad hands, just remove to seal off the train pipe.

Water will encourage sticking.
If you're concerned about grease collecting contaminants, give some thought to using a spray can of silicone. Some are formulated to end up perfectly dry, so they don't attract anything, but result in a surface that won't stick. Mold release is just such a formulation.

H

[Greg_Lewis]

Beautiful, Tom. Where can we get them?

[Short Line Tom]

Greg,

thanks for your interest. I'm glad you like it.
The parts are currently still in the testing phase.
After that, you can get them directly from SHAPEWAYS.

I'm sure, you'll be interested in some general informations about my 1.5" scale gladhands.

They are usable for vacuum, compressed air or liquid.
They hold 80 PSI with no leaks.
The O-ring stays in place while uncoupling them till 30 PSI (sometimes till 40 PSI).
A drop of glue will eliminate this problem, because the pressure test was done without any glue to fit the O-ring.

The gladhands do uncouple (break apart) just like the prototype,
but this process needs, from my point of view too much force.
At that point, I still have to make an improvement.
So I've ordered an "updated" pair of gladhands from SHAPEWAYS, which haven't arrived yet.

Stay tuned

Cheers!
Tom

[Erskine Tramway]

The gladhands do uncouple (break apart) just like the prototype,
but this process needs, from my point of view too much force.
At that point, I still have to make an improvement.
So I've ordered an "updated" pair of gladhands from SHAPEWAYS, which haven't arrived yet.

Stay tuned

Cheers!
Tom

Hi Tom...

The big gladhands come apart fairly easily by hand, with no pressure on them. When you have to separate them under pressure, and you don't want to just pull the cars apart and let them uncouple, you close both angle cocks, stand with one leg against the hose that will fly in your direction...in the US, generally the one to your right...so that it doesn't hit you with the gladhand when the air pressure jets out, and lift them up. Until they've been coupled and uncoupled a few times, they are kind of stiff. After some use, the 'ear' on the end and the 'groove' towards the hose end will smooth out and they work easier. The angle connection to the hose is what makes them uncouple when the hoses are pulled straight, by tilting the gladhands up so that they come uncoupled. You could increase the angle of the 'spigot' a little, and they would uncouple a little sooner.

Here's a couple pictures of a gladhand that I rescued...with the permission of the guy in charge...from the Chama 'burn pile' in 1962. You can see the groove that holds the prototype sealing ring. I used to carry a couple of those rings in my pocket when I was a Brakeman.

Mike

[Short Line Tom]

Mike,

thanks for sharing your hands-on experience and the useful informations on the topic

Cheers!
Tom

[johnpenn74]

A little off topic.... But are US style glad hands universal around the world? Or do other countries have other solutions?

JP

[Greg_Lewis]

Forgive me but I'd like to put in a plug for Tom's Shapeways page, under Railroad Tom. He did a flag and marker lamp bracket for me and it was terrific. It's now on his page along with lots of other stuff.

[Short Line Tom]

Hey John,

look and handling of the "German Luftkupplung" is quite similar to the US gladhands.
But I don't think, you could mix both standards.
http://www.dmg-berlin.info/page/downloa ... eemann.pdf (scroll down to page 16)
For me, this is not really important, because I'm interested in US Railroads anyway.

Cheers!
Tom

[Erskine Tramway]

There are at least three different sizes of gladhands in the US. The brake pipe connection is the largest, by Westinghouse part #FP-5. The Main Reservoir hose on locomotives is #LS-4, and the other two Multiple Unit hoses are #HS-2. The different sizes keep you from connecting the wrong hoses together.

Mike

[makinsmoke]

Tom,
Shapeways shows 1-3/4” scale. Is that what you are calling 1-1/2” scale above, or is it a different product?

Also, silly question. Are these cored or will they need to be drilled out?

Thanks!
Brian

[Short Line Tom]

Brian,

the 1-3/4” scale parts are something different.
I've made them especially on request for a member here on the board, unfortunately without any response

Anyway, my 1.5" scale gladhands are currently not visible in "my shop", because I'm still working on it.
The parts will be fully cored, no drilling is necessary.

But right from the start, SHAPEWAYS was not able to cast the gladhands in one piece (include the barb).
The reason for that, the escape hole was not large enough to allow removal of the hardened plaster from the hollow area.
Therefore I've altered my design into a "built-up part" which have to be silver soldered.
That means, the gladhand is made by SHAPEWAYS and the barb will be a made from the customer (include silver soldering).

Cheers!
Tom

[Greg_Lewis]

Tom:
I'm drooling on my keyboard!