Went to my locoal Hobby Shop. Catenary Question.

[FThunder11]

I went to my LHS just to look around and make a list of everything I wanted. It came to upwards of $350, and this did not include the all the locomotives I wanted. Although I did find an amd-103 Amtrak phase 5 in HO!!! I was happy about that one and only $86! Anyway, I asked the guy at my LHS about building catenary for my layout, and he was very helpful and gave me some very good ideas, and even told me all the materials hes using and told me exactly how to make the ones he gonna make. Anyway, I was wondering if there is anybody else out there with some good info on using catenary? ANd building Catenary. The pre-made stuff is way too expensive for me.

[cacole]

All is not lost -- we recently had a large lot of catenary donated to our local club and we don't know what to do with it since our layout is already complete and does not use any catenary. The donated items include posts for up to a triple track system, and a lot of miscellanous parts, including unopened packages of catenary wiring. If you're interested, let me know and I'll find out what the club will accept as a price, since we have no use for it and have been looking for someone who would like to utilize it.

[DSchmitt]

This site may be of interest to you and other "cats" Its devoted to interurban and streetcar, however, not main line electric.

http://www.trolleyville.com/trolleyville.shtml

[Don Gibson]

Catenary is tricky... and 'finicky'.

You thought rail was hard to keep free of crud and running? ...

[Anonymous]

I have run catenary systems off and on for 30 years. I have used mostly Marklin stuff, which is grossly out of scale and not the correct prototype for US railroads. On the last layout I scratch built trolley style single wire catenary. The locos used pantographs for power pick up. It was not easy to build, but it sure turned out great and it ran very well. I wouldn't shy away from building catenary from scratch. I was inspired by George Huckaby at customtraxx.com. I saw him do a demonstration at a train show several years ago, he made it look easy....He gave me this great handout that explained it all. I think it is posted on his site. There is also a guy on these forums who New Haven layout was recently featured in MR with good looking wires on it. I'm sure he has some opinions. I would be happy to e-mail you swome pics of my wires if you are interested.


Guy

[Anonymous]

I use pre-formed wire from Model Memories and brass structural shapes, mainly from KS Engineering to build the Pennsy styled catenary on y Acela Express Northeast Corridor Portable Layout. No matter whose catenary system you pick, it still will be a lot of work and expense, no way around it.

David Harrison
http://community.webtv.net/AcelaTrains/TheAcelaTrain

[easyaces]

A while back I think MR or MRC did a column on catenary using Phosphor-bronze Wire. It seemed to be a bit tricky to put together. There are some commercial alternatives that run a bit on the expensive side when you find them.