Before Galvanized W-Section Highway Guardrails

[jbvb]

Older highway guardrails can improve the look of pre-1960 layouts - moved from RR-Line.
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1-Jun-2011: Galvanized steel w-section guardrails like Pikestuff makes in HO first appeared (AFAIK) in the 1960s and by 1980 or so were being used for practically all new installations everywhere in the US that I've traveled. However, they aren't what you see in steam- and transition-era pictures. I've got several locations where I need to model what came before.

What I recall as most common when I was a kid was 2 or 3 7/8" galvanized cables supported by wood or concrete posts. But I waited too long, because searching for 'cable highway guard' gets a lot about a recently introduced, high tension scheme and nothing about how it was done 60 years ago. However, driving around I had noticed a few obsolete, deteriorating cable guards.



New Hampshire did it this way, at least late in the game. The creosoted wood posts are about 5 inches in diameter, six feet apart. Cables are held by J-bolts and nuts on the back of the post (I'll post a closeup on request). I think bringing all the ends down to a single anchor as shown was pretty much universal. I have one 1972 photo showing 2 cables on white posts, but nothing to scan the negative with.

Once you buy one of Micro-Mark's dowel dies, you should be able to turn out .060 dowel as fast as your fingers can stand it. There are various solutions for the cable; I'd twist 2 or three strands from a lamp cord for close-up viewing.



Lacking both a creosoting plant and much of a logging industry, Massachusetts preferred concrete posts. These are all I can find these days, and unless someone with an injection molding setup takes mercy on me, I am not sure how I'd do 3 dozen so they'd stand up to a 12" view. The long edge is about 7", closeup on request. No evidence remains that it was ever painted, but I remember them white, sometimes with black below the lowest cable.

Another photo I can't scan shows 6" square concrete posts with two 3x6 timber rails along US 1 in Newburyport. Rails white, posts black up to the bottom of the first rail, white above. That would be enough easier to build that I might use it instead. But I figured I'd consult the assembled wisdom first.

SDFarmer replied:

Re: cable... I have used beading wire or jewelry wire. It is a fine gauge wire in silver or for something really snappy, gold. They seem to like 7 strand and go as small as 36 gauge. 28 gauge is about .013. Watch out for the jewelry wire they coat it in nylon. Here is a URL of a craft/jewelry supply. Craft wire is solid core. But you can get 30 feet of 28 gauge stranded beading wire for about $1.50. The shipping'll kill ya... LOL.  He recommended Widget Supply, but in early 2025 they're having a retirement sale.

postalkarl replied:

The ones I remember as a kid were square. Probably 8X8's. They were painted white with black tops. Holes were drilled through the 8x8's and the cable was passed through them.

Dutchman (Bruce De Young) replied:

I managed to grab these shots near my house just before this section was changed to steel guard rails. There are still sections with the concrete posts around the area. My notes say 6"x6"s except for the end 'anchor' post which was 8"x8".

[jbvb]

k9wrangler replied: For this section of road I used round toothpicks cut off and painted. I did not use any wire/thread as it is a background area.



Orionvp17 (Pete) replied: There are (or were; I'm not there right now) classic post-and-cable guardrails on Rt 12 in Fitzwilliam, NH and various other places in the Monadnock area. You might have a look along 101 and 124 as well. Just watch your speeds in there; the "revenoors" are out generating income for the local cash-poor municipalities.

I watched (horrified) a driver drift right at one at highway speed several years ago. Barrel roll up and over, landed on the roof in the ditch, debris flying everywhere. Fortunately the cage held and the driver, who had nodded off, received only an apparent cut on the head. Fitzwilliam Fire took over and we went on our way, so I don't have all of the "rest of the story."

I keep thinking in terms of telephone pole sized posts, black and white, black on the bottom, but I could be wrong.

"E-Z Line" from Berkshire Junction might be a good place to find the "cable" for your installation.

23-Apr-2012: Here's a first cut at modeling cable highway guards with concrete posts in HO:



The posts started out as 1/16" x 3/32" basswood (tie stock) which I put through a trapezoidal drawing plate I found at Widget Supply. I filed a bit of a pyramidal shape on the ends and airbrushed them Scalecoat white. The fastenings are Detail Associates "3 1/2" eyebolts", which I had around for EMD diesel lift rings. I drilled #80 holes for them with a Dremel drill press setup. The cable is 28 GA beading wire, also from Widget Supply. It's way too shiny for even new galvanized, but it's also rigid. Jane has braided beading wire of that gauge around, so I'll see what it looks like later this week.

This method is really foreground (you can see the edge of the layout to the left), but most of the time went into tapering and painting the individual posts. With a simple jig, drilling the holes and installing the eyes in five posts went fairly fast. But I am going to think a bit before I commit to doing the ~20 posts on the distant side of the overpass this way.

In 2025 these have survived 12 years of visitors and operation. Should I have to, the posts could be made out of something stronger, even brass, though the drilling would be difficult. Only two posts are most at risk..

26-Apr-2012: Here's the next try (other side of Rt. 1A at the overpass):



These cables are .010" 7-strand stainless steel beading wire courtesy of my friend Jane. I knotted the ends as a convenient way to keep them from pulling through the RH eyes, but it puts a bend in the cable; I think I'll use beads of glue or solder in the final assembly.

I like the look better. The SS wire won't take blackening (the solid wire I used on the other side will), but I'll see how it goes with a little Floquil Rust over the weekend.

It was a while before I addressed making a steel anchor plate for the bridge end that was both realistic and capable of holding the cables in place.

27-Apr-2012: I haven't tried EZ-Line (I have some around), but I did try a single strand of .007" copper from an electrical cable. It seemed too thin for me, so I didn't try to fix the color.

22-Aug-2012: Although my scanner is only designed for 35mm film, I tried some of my oldest 620 format negatives. I blurred this one when I took it, and the scan didn't cover the whole negative area, but it's all I have:



This is the wood guardrail installed when the Rt. 1 Newburyport bypass was built by the WPA in the late 1930s. The GP-9 is switching the Owens-Illinois plastic bottle factory.

[jbvb]

29-Jul-2015: Returning to this topic because I've worked out a couple of questions I hadn't addressed back in 2011:



Here's my styrene rendition of the concrete post/two wood rail guard shown in my circa-1970 shot of US 1 in Newburyport, MA. The closer guard uses .080 square for the posts. I broke the edges of the top with a file. Its rails are .040 x .080. The farther guard is right up against the backdrop, so both posts and rails are .010 x .080.



I made this termination plate for the cable guard from .015 x .188 styrene with .010 x .040 clamp strips. I glued it with tube cement and pressed the strips down over the wires once they'd softened a bit. Glad I took the closeup, it shows how much cleanup it needed before painting 'galvanized'.

quartergauger48 replied:

I didn't have any eye loops so I ran my line directly through the posts. 1/4 balsa dowels for the posts.
This is an O scale model and first attempt at any type of guard rail.

29-Jul-2015: It looks good, but the red/white candy cane is new to me. There's full-size marine rope like that, were you aiming to model a seaport community's solution to a local problem, or were you planning to paint it?

quartergauger48 said:

Actually, on many private roads and drives in my area this type of line is used on properties. It is more of a guide rail then a 'Guard Rail' .... State park with swimming access also use this in CT. Or at least used too back in the 60s/70s.....It's different for sure, but I like it.
Additionally, Jim, this is the road going up to Sassy's, a local watering hole. The red/white rope is hard to miss after patrons may of had one too many'...(

[jbvb]

31-Aug-2015: These wood guardrails are maintained by Oregon on their 'Historic Rt. 30' along the Columbia River (An interesting drive but in places it's lost its RoW to I-84).





The rails look like about 4" x 8", the posts about 8x8. I suspect everything is pressure-treated under the white paint.

[deemery]

I remember this thread over on RR-L.  It was a nice demonstration on how various people contributed to a conversation on both prototype and modeling.

dave

[ACL1504]

I used the post and cable method on the Atlantic and Southern RR.