Catenary Clinic

oh i see what you ar saying, you want the bridge to hide the end of the catenary wire.

i still think you should add the transmission towers, lol. I honestly can't look at an NEC picture if they don't have them. thats one of the reasons i like it so much. when i was younger (6 years old) i used to like studying those high tension wire support things all over NJ. talk about weird! in any event the NEC stuff was always cool to me. those transmission lines would make that scene unmistakeably NEC, even if the wires looked funny.
 
Chris, I had in mind to add the transmission wires on the near side only. If I use the truss bridge, it will be even more interesting. I think my next step will be to build a mock up out of styrene strip. Off to the store!

Gary
 
Gary: Another prototype. The Lake Erie and Northern at Waterford, Ontario. Crosses a river and the high speed line between Buffalo and Detroit. Not heavy electric, but you may be able to make out the construction.
 

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Shh! don't tell anyone, but it's the cover photo from Canadian Pacific's Electric Lines, published by BRMNA.
My sister-in-law lived for a few years in a house on the other side of the bridge, with the LE&N at the top of the garden and the TH&B at the bottom. Not a train on the line the whole time and the LE&N torn up (including the bridge!) before they left.
I have a spare copy of the book...
 
MCL_RDG said:
...trying this in N Scale! :eek:

Mark
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Good on you Mark, I have seen only two n scale models both without overhead never mind powered overhead.
There is a guy who does the shows around Toronto who runs three types of overhead gauge, just end to end on ply wood . I think he sells the stop reverse eletronic thingy.
We hope to see pictures soon .
Best of luck with this fine gauge. :wave:
 
oh its not off topic! don't kill the only good catenary thread ever! and i was about to ask a catenary related question!


do any of you think it would be worth it to try to use steal wire to sumulate the cables that hold catenary up rather than only use the "K" beams? just curious
 
well i can get hold of proper architects structural materials so i can build so very good looking overhead - i would suggest using N gauge track in HO and fairly thick wire in N gauge.
 
this is the common "K" brace catenary that i have plans for. the supports between the poles look like a K placed on its side.

3dGG1freightkbraced4track2.jpg




this seems easy enough, and looks great to. at the same time however, there I also see alot of catenary supported only by wires from pole to pole, like here. its a little pale, but you can see it. it looks as though i could just bend and solder the wires. would any one have measurements and angles for me? i'm scratch building my catenary, and while looking good is usualy good enough, i also want to try and stick to the protoype as much as i can with the materials i have.
3dGG1freightlaticespan4track3.jpg


Also, there are so called "diamond" braces on the lower lateral wire. this also seems liek something i could easily fabricate from bent wire, and just solder on.

As tedious as it is, i won't mind doing that, but i wonder if its actualy worth it? would it be to delicate to try and make it exact? there doesn't seem to be to many construction issues that would get in the way other than lack of supplies (i would have to order alot fromt he internet) and the fact that there really isn't anything that looks like catenary insulators, or inuslatores for transmission lines. i'm sure i could find something though.
 
ross31r said:
well i can get hold of proper architects structural materials so i can build so very good looking overhead - i would suggest using N gauge track in HO and fairly thick wire in N gauge.
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i thought about this. turns out your regular old trainset code 100 tack rail is alot better, atleast fror the K brace.

N scale rail might be alot better for transmission line arms. isn't N tack Code 70?
 
also, those plastic archecture shapes won't work according to people i have talked to who have tried it. apperently it will bend or brake. then againe they built theirs for O-Scale. the stresses might be different for HO, but when i asked he said it still probably wouldn't work. Brass and metal stuff supposedly is much sturdier, and has the added bonus of conducting electricity, if you ever want to electrify it.
 
Gary H Pfeil said:
After pondering how to make the best of a difficult situation, a friend mentioned that if I used a truss ridge to span the JGL tracks, the busyness of the bridge components would lead the eye away from the backdrop. I have a Central Valley truss bridge I built as designed and I took the superstructure and laid it on the trackboard to see hopw it would look. The bridge is too long, I would need to build it with one section removed, and skewed. But I think it could work out well. Here is a photo of it sitting there. Use your imagination! Bear in mind when built skewed, it would be slid to the right quite a bit.
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i know, i'm quinto posting ( 5 posts, i'm not sure if quinto is a word) but i just had a great idea! could you hide either end of a short (3 car) express train, and simply make it go in one difrection, stop, then go backwars ( like the push pull system of today). for all anyone knows, thats the end of the line, and the train is heading back. you'd just need to hide one side. the other could be like a station on the NEC.
 
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