O Scale Catenary Systems

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have collected a lot of O scale 3 rail electric locomotives and want a catenary system for the layout I will build some day. I know of MTH’s modular offering and know House of Duddy has catenary components but there website does not show what they offer. I haven’t used a soldering gun in years and I am not looking forward to using one to build the catenary system I want. Are their any other modular systems available that anybody has any experience with? I have heard of one that begins with a “V” that looks like a model of a foreign prototype. Any help with what works best would be appreciated.

Thanks

Paul Finn

2

[#welcome] to the forum.

There was a good article a few months back in CTT I believe, where the author used HO rail for his overhead wire. It looked pretty good and didn’t seem too difficult.

The House of Duddy stuff is for scale trollys, if I’m not mistaken. It would be a bit fragile for pantograph operation. They may have some other components, but they may require more work than you are looking to do.

It is a rare person who choses to model overhead wiring, and the manufacturers know that. There isn’t much made. I couldn’t find anything in the Walthers HO catalog, not that you are seeking HO. I thought that the name you were thinking of might be Vollmer.

You might want to try a Google search.

3

ITS VIESSEMENor something like that, I am gonna use catenary, if i get the darn money. and thats one of the companys i looked at, i dont think thats the correct spelling, but its close

4

I suggest you contact Model Memories. I used a lot of their products on my HO NH layout which was featured in the August MR. I don’t know if they make O-scale catenary components; I would certainly check it out. They advertise in MR.

5

There’s one guy who makes a more tinplate size and tinplate looking cantenary for 3-rail

http://www.steeltoys.com/steel_cat.htm

6

Paul,

I scratchbuilt trolley style catenary that I used with pantographs on an HO Marklin layout. The Viessmann stuff looks better than Marklin’s stuff (speaking HO) but still looked too heavy to me, so I scratchbuilt my own. Try customtraxx.com for info. An HO supplier is O’Toole lines. They may have some O scale stuff.

Catenary is not easy to build, but it sure looks great when it is done. Email me off-forum if you want to see some pics of my wires.

Guy

7

Actually, most of the traction overhead parts sold for HO scale are a lot closer to O scale–so if you’re doing fine-scale O, the HO stuff would look better. If you’re going for more of a tinplate look, it might not be appropriate.

Are you wanting to do compound catenary, or just simple trolley overhead? Trolley overhead does require some soldering but is a LOT simpler than catenary.