Something I've always thought would be neat but I don't know how pratical.
Seems if you could build and secure a sturdy r.r. telephone pole and keep it from shorting out or sparking,that putting your layout power wires on poles would be prototypical,and maybe easier to trouble shoot.But how safe ?
So does anyone have or know anyone who has tried wiring there layout wires on r.r. telephone poles
Collin ,operator of the " Eastern Kentucky & Ohio R.R."
Completely impractical unless you are powering just a few LEDs. Even if you are modeling High tension wires, the wire gauge would be too small for current carrying. Think thread-size for roadside poles.
Rob
I doubt powering the rails with wires from poles would work, though it does so for catenary. I plan on using thin wire for ground mounted on poles to help in signal for the TMCC so I don't get interference. This will work for areas where one level of track is over another level, but I doubt it would work for metal structures at track level, unless you ground those as well.
Dennis
TCA#09-63805
What I would suggest for looks and being half way practical is to use fish line, now available in black, about 10 or 12 pound test and string it between the telephone poles. Wire your track & track side accessories from underneath by drilling small holes in the layout to pass the wires through. Keeping wires out of sight looks a lot better to me.
Lee F.
phillyreading What I would suggest for looks and being half way practical is to use fish line, now available in black, about 10 or 12 pound test and string it between the telephone poles. Wire your track & track side accessories from underneath by drilling small holes in the layout to pass the wires through. Keeping wires out of sight looks a lot better to me. Lee F.
Not sure what you are trying to accomplish regarding running fishing line with wires underneath.
However, let me save you some pain and anguish.
Fishing line - been there. done that. Have the T-Shirt - bad idea.
Fishing line - at least the type I used is unforgiving. Therefore, every line has to be precisely cut to size. If you are running more than one line between two poles, the amount of tautness you apply to the line must precisely match teh previous line or you will have irregularly sagging lines. Drove myself nuts with this for several nights. Looked awful - tore it all out.
Prior to that, I had used elastic string which had some give to it. Looked great. After a couple of months, the elasticity started to waver and I ended up with sagging lines far beyond what looked real. Caught the roof horn of an F3 on one and pulled out a couple of poles.
Now I am using plain old thread, and it seems to be working nicely.
Also on teh fishing line, because of its inherent strength, it is very difficult to wrap around the thing-a-ma-jiggie on the pole arm.
Stringing poles is very tediouis and while I think it greatly enhances the look of the layout. I offer the feedback from my past experiments in order to save you some trouble.
Here's a shot of some of the poles which still have elastic string:
The insulators on the poles won't handle mononfiliment very well. You can run thread through a parafin block/candle and that will increase the smoothness and provide some protection from moisture adsorbtion from excessive humidty.
Couldn't that start a fire if the cat jumped up on the layout? Or if you leaned over the layout to grab something and bumped the wires or slipped. I see it as a major safety issue.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
The gauge of wire required to pull this off would be so out of scale it wouldn't be funny. You MIGHT be able to pull this off if it were mimicking a telecom bundle but it's probably way more trouble than its worth.
You could get real enameled wire (say 32 gauge), melt off the enamel with lacquer thinner, and weather it to be green or grey or black and then "string" it between the poles. I'd never recommend running any electricity though it but it should look good.
Yes, twice I did layouts with telephone cord copper wires in the mid 60's and 1990 to 98.. I ran separate circuits to each of two loops. I also used a second transformer for accessories and ran separate circuits to each accessory. The single strands will carry current for a single loop and the separate transformer to the accessory. I did have spacers for insulation and made it sag a little as well for a better look. The reason I ceased that method, every time I needed to clean up derailment I hit wires and had problems.
I plan to rewire my layout in my Ironton office soon, using that method, I have easy reach access there.
Well here's what I use to light those street lights & small grain of wheat bulbs that I have instaled in my buildings. I use "bus wire." I take small pieces of insulated black tape,& wrap it around those tint insulators on the tops of the poles. I than wrap the bus wire around the black tape & carry the procedure to the nxt pole. all this is hooked up the the variable post on a small dc power pack I have. Nothing has burned down yet. From these lines I run lines to the houses.The wire is not hot to the touch either. Hope this makes scence. Hopper
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