Back in the 1950s and 1960s Model Railroader had a feature called "Blue Book of M.R. practice" Some of the items were diesel paint schemes, but there was a whole series that had information about air pump piping, hand rails, electrical conduits, etc.
Try the model railroad index on the Klambach website. It seems that there may be other articles in addition and maybe in other publications. You may have to look at the index of indiviual issues.
I beleive that copies of individual articles from MR can be order from Klambach. If you have problems contact me off line and I can purhapes go through my back issues and see about making copies,
Brian Norden