Catenary Clinic

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interurban

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Aug 21, 2002
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WOW!!!

Great work Gary. Are you 20 scale ft from top of rail to wire. Or there abouts.:D

With the close proximity of the support and space wire I bet the heat from the gun just traveled to fast for your liking eh Gary.

You did a brilleant job with glue, as for weathering try a bit at a time as it`s easy to put on but hard to get off!.


:thumb:
 
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Gary Pfeil

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May 7, 2001
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Thanks Chris! Yes, I'm an actual 3", so between 20 and 21 scale feet, I reckon. The pantograph on my GG! touched it, but probably not enough to run under it, I didn't want it to pop any joints when I pose it under the wires. Guess I'll be posing it on the front track mostly, as getting it to the rear one will be a trick!

The soldering just beat me. I've soldered wires plenty, but had immense difficulty with this. My liquid flux may be old and need to be replaced, hadn't soldered in awhile. I was getting bad joints, the dolder wouldn't flow, it wasn't due to lack of heat. Solder would bead up and fall off. Or make big globs. Of course the wire not being firmly attached when trying the first connection made things more fun. I only had 8 lengths to do, by the end I had figured out to make a little jig to hold the other end of wire 3: high while I fastened the other end. I suppose if I built a bit more, I would get the hang of it. We'll never know!

Thanks to all who offered advise previously, it was all very helpful!
 
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Harold Cole

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Feb 15, 2006
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Gary Pfeil said:
Thanks Chris, and Chris, Here is a shot from a CNJ book showing the inspiration for this scene, I had intended to build as shown. My first photo shows the deck, the edges of the plywood would become concrete and I will cast cut stone walls over the 2x4. However, as I said where the wires meet the wall is a bit of a dilema. The truss bridge does solve that, at the expense, apparently, of not being prototypical. I appreciate your suggestion of girder bridges, I understand they would be correct. But they don't help hide the wall so if I don't use the truss, I'll probably go with the concrete as in the photo. While I like to follow prototype, I will veer from it in order to solve a problem such as this. I'm still not sure which way I'm going to go. I don't mind the work involved to route the wiring thru the bridge, but would really like to see how it is handled, if not on a similar bridge, then at least in some other somewhat similar situation, like a low clearance perhaps.

Yes, those bridges are by Model Memories. I had seen an article on using brazing rod and code 100 rail to build your own and was going to go that route when I found these existed, so I bought these instead.
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Gary, build it the way you want,and just to mention there were truss bridges with catanary.I've been involved in many disconnect of side branch lines that were set up just like that.
 
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Gary Pfeil

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Thanks Ralph, and Harold. Harold, all the photos I find of the corridor show the bridges fine, but the wires can at best just be seen, they appear like they could be black. If you have a suggestion on proper appearance, I'd be glad to hear it.
 
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green_elite_cab

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Apr 4, 2005
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oh man! i really want to get my catenary up soon! i've had alot of the stuff waiting for a while, but i'm still working on detailing other parts of my layouyt ( i don't want to have reach over the catenary and break it)

I need to ask where you got the insulators, since they are a detail i need. did they come with a model memories' kit?

i personally am probably going to break down ans order their kits soon. I don't think i could scratchbuilt the catenary even with rail to look that good. i might try and make a bridge with some spare rail i have lying around for the heck of it, to see how it looks.

what kind of green do you have there? i was going to go for some penn central green, then the black wash.
 
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Gary Pfeil

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Hi Chris, yes, insulators come with Model Memories kits and are also sold seperately.

In regard to the green, I did in fact use PC green, always have for that copper patina look. I kept adding white till I got what looked like a correct shade, I recommend adding green to white instead as I wound up with too much paint, underestimating how much white would be required. No need for a formula here, just add some green to a half bottle of white till it looks good.
 
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