Trolley pole and wire

[cnw1995]

John, I believe his HO layout is now gone - and he is building something in O.

[csxt30]

Felix: are you building the new o-gauge layout in addition to the HO one ?
That's a great HO layout ! Thanks, John

[spankybird]

This is Felix’s old HO layout. He is now building a new ‘O’ gauge layout.









click on the pics to enlarge them

tom

[Anonymous]

HI doug, tom, If you guy's have any of the pictures that I sent to you, see if you can post them on this site. I' m not set up to do it right now. I'm sure the guy's out there will get a kick out them when they see what I've made. When people see actual cantenary working they are so fascinated that they must touch the overhead wire to see if there is any electricity in it. They don't believe it actualy works. I have to pull down the pantagraph to show them. WE did not have dcs or tmcc back then but this type of operation worked great with out all this new technology that we have today. I will make some comments about this post when I see more responces . Felix

[Anonymous]

I'm gonna watch this with interest- I'm really curious about the possibility of running my "PW" Lionel EP-5 "under wire" - Of the hundreds that were sold, is there anybody out there that actually put up a small catenary system???

[cnw1995]

Felix is a real pro - you should see what he did in HO.
I think I'll start with a small straight patch and see what happens.

[spankybird]

Felixg - you and Doug should work well together on this.

Doug - many of the MTH trolleys and electric engines can be run from the overhead wires.

[Anonymous]

Hi doug I'm watching this post. This should be interesting to see what kind of advice you are going to get. I may throw my two cents in later. Good luck Felix

[Anonymous]

You could be in for some interesting experiences by most accounts - http://www.blackpool-in-the-box.freeserve.co.uk/ has information and advice on OO trams (smaller scale, but the techniques should scale up) which might be of use. Hope this helps!

[wrmcclellan]

Doug,

I have no experience with this (except a very brief foray in HO many many years ago), but you have probably seen the numerous articles in CTT and OGR on catenary. Like trolley wire, it needs to be held down a bit from the cross members so the wheel or shoe on the trolley pole can track the wire.

Thread may not work well unless you can really tension it (weights) to keep it taught against the upward pressure.

Here are a couple of links that might prove interesting although they are slanted towards prototypical installation which is far more complicated than what you are contemplating.

http://www.trolleyville.com/tv/school/catenary_construction/index.shtml

http://users.adelphia.net/~bweisman/

The last photo on this page shows what a trolley wire hanger looks like.

http://www.rockhilltrolley.org/ext_wire.htm

[phillyreading]

I remember seeing an article in Classic Toy Trains about making your own catenary system with H.O. track rails and soldering the rails together. Also MTH makes an over head wire system to use with three rail track.
Lee F. in south FL

[cnw1995]

As some of you know, I am converting my layout into something of a 'traction' railroad. I've got hundreds of 6 inch long dowels I'm preparing to spear into the ground - but I don't know enough about this 3-rail-roller equipped Western Hobbycraft trolley to see if it would also really work off its trolley poles. That said, I'm experimenting with attaching wire or thread to these poles and would like advice as to how to do it. I am planting the poles in pairs across the track from one another - to best support the 'wire'. Maybe just a drop of glue, or cut some sort of slit in the wood or ....?