i see so many types of transmission wire atop the cateanary that i’m not sure on what to do. i’m just looking for scale drawings of anythign catenary, but my main thing i’m searching for is transmission towers and stuff.
chris
Chris,
Welcome to the forum !
Could you clarify what you’re planning to do. Do you plan to build your own catenary ? There are some parts and kits for this already - do you need sites for that ? Have you checked to see if there is a traction site at Yahoo groups ?
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
Also important is where you are viewing the catenary. Former New haven trackage used a triangular support. The PRR used a traditional catenary but had several methods of hanging it. Some areas uses round poles with wire support. Other areas had I beams with structural members spanning the tracks. OTher areas had single arms . Some areas have power company lines running on top of the railroad catenary through air rights. All of the old PRR stuff was originally 50 cycle by the way. The thinking was that nobody would want to steal power due to the flickering it would cause.
Chris,
You also didn’t state what scale you plan to build. For the Northeast Corridor, in HO scale, for instance, here’s a link to Model Memories products:
http://www.info-4u.com/modelmemories/hocat.htm#prrcat
Hope it helps.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
I thought it was 25 cycles… because it was more effiecient for the equipment being powered over the distances … need to look up the GG1 specs again, I guess.
I’m on the NJT Gladstone brance, and some of the supports for the catenary here (ex DL&W) are wooden utility poles.
Also consider the (original) supports in (NJ) are often lattice work (stell+rivet) supports … real pain to model! Much of this is being replaced - so do any first–hand research fast!
And there are also decayed poles (for signal and telegraph purposes) along the NEC made of concrete and steel rebar.
There are 2 routes out of Newark, NJ to the east… the NEC is one… the former PRR freight also had catenary - but Conrail removed it - the towers exst still, with utility lines atop it all (parallels US1 from the airport to Pulaski Skyway).
I’M so unbelieveably sorry, i forgot this post entirely!!! how i did that is beyond me. anyway, i am doing this in HO, and i’ve seen model memories, and it digs to deeply into my pocket. besides, i have the right idea for the catenary, i just wanted to make my catenary look more fancy with transmissiona lines, mucch like you might find on teh south half of the NEC from metuchen NJ to pennsylvania. it has 2 pairs of whire on each side of the catenary bridge. the only porblem is where do the 4 wies on each side go when my to track mainline seperates? thats a new problem i didn’t have at first.
once again, i’m really sorry i forgot about this. please forgive me!
chris
Best bet is to go do some field research. In the situation you describe the prototype would raise the wires high enough to go over the junction and return them to the original level. I built catenary using Plastruct shapes and had the top arced wire go through a hole drilled in the horizontal beam. Start your catenary by fixing it to something solid like a screw so you can pull it tight. Then when you finish it there will be no stress on the towers and you can clip it off if in a visible location. Other wise if you pull it tight against the Plastruct it will bend. I thought the PRR was 50 cycle but whatever it was it was designed so people couldn’t steal the power for their own use as lights would flicker considerably and not be worth the effort
i already bought and obtained brass sticks to build my catenary. although i could see if the plastruct would glue to my brazing rods. would that work? i haven’t been able to glue metal to metal, even with crazy glue. soon i’ll need to learn to solder
You are going to have to learn to solder to do catenary properly. It is the only way you will get the vertical segments to hold properly. Check Keystone crossings website. There is an article on building Catenary that was supposed to be published and wasn’t and the author was allowed to distribute it. It will give you some basics of what you will be doing.
yep thats where i got my catenary instructions from. i decided to make my own trnasmission lines.
chris