Was out for a few hours and snapped some pics. This had to be the smoothest job I've done to date. You know the kind, everything you thought of, pre planned for just falls right into place perfectly. They redid this building(the one where I welded all the chiller/hot water piping on) and put these new stairs in. Well apparently the safety guy caught some guys going over the guardrail and said, "WWHhhooooaaaa!!!!" Guy said he just wanted to cut out this short section and somehow have it so it would pull up to be removed, just put some short sleeves on the bottom he says. Then a guy leans on it, falls over and here we go, testing the insurance.
Thought I had it figured out at first thinking it was a 1-5/8 pipe(would have worked perfect with 2") but another measurement revealed a 1.66" OD. I ended putting a sleeve ring at the top to snug it up but be removeable. Everything just fell into place so perfectly that I beat my bid price nicely. Yes, I tested it after it was all installed. At about 175 I leaned on it and then braced myself against the opposite handrail and pushed with my legs and arms. The Channel they used for the framing around the landing flexed, which was weird but this rail ain't going anywhere.