How to Electrify a railroad

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Well, I can't let this thread fall back to much. Nothing to new to report, though I suppose it would make sense to explain how I made the wire.

Essentially, I used steel and brass wires (0.020) to construct this span. Future wire will be made probably from Phosphur bronze and brass.

I made a two in one jig. The first "part" is a series of straigh pins set in a 3-1-3-1-3 pattern, with the "3"s having three straight pins spaced at the same distance as thickness of the contact and auxiliary wires. the "single" pins were set in the middle so that I could be sure the wires kept evenly spaced.

This would allow me to make the parallel contact and auxiliary wires common on PRR mainlines (freight lines and low-traffic lines usually did not include an auxiliary wire). I would simply lay two sections of wire between the pins and make solder "clips" every scale 15', approximately 2".

the "second" part was a pair of nails distanced about 8 scale feet from the contact wire, and spaced the distance between the catenary bridges. This is to make the "messenger wire", or the curvy catenary wire. With the previous wire still in the 1st part of the jig, I would drape another section of wire over the nails, and tape it so that the mid point was 2 scale feet from the auxiliary. This creates a natural curve that looks to scale.

To make the hangers between the messenger and the auxiliary wire, I would then flux and solder a length of wire to the messenger approximately 15 scale feet from the "pole", and let the other end of the wire drape over the conact/auxiliary. I would then cut this wire flush, and flux-solder the hanger to the auxiliary.

If spaced out to scale, the hangers will be every scale 30', and in between the contact/auxiliary clips, reducing the chance of undoing those solder joints.

In the end, you get a pretty horizontally stable section of wire, enough that I could hold it on one end, and the other end would not sag much.

Its somewhat visible in the below photo.




To attach the wires to the catenary structures, I used some wood blocks to hold the wire 22' over the rails. I made a small hook in the hanger attach to the pole, and hooked the open end of the messenger wire over that. I soldered the messenger to this hook, then cut the hook flush to the solder joint.

I then took a lenght of brass wire and ran it diagnolly between the contact and auxiliary wire to the steady-span wire in order to make the "Steady rods". I did this at what appeared to be a prototypical angle (even the prototype wasn't always 100% uniform), and soldered the end of the wire to the steady span. Once that was secure, I soldered the wire to the auxiliary, and snipped off the excess as close as possible. This was repeated to do the other "half" of the steady rod assembly, using small pinchers to keep the wire in one spot.

After clipping any excess, I moved to the next pole and repeated the process.

Cutting the wire as you go seems to be the best way to do this sort of thing, since it allows small adjustments, and less waste of supplies.

you can see the "mounting" assembly in this photo. It seems tricky when you look at it, but is relatively straight forward once you begin.

Catenary should be tensioned in sections.
Trolley modellers used to have little brass plates like frogs with holes in them at the ends of modules and a piece of wire would be hooked between them. You might be able to contrive something similar for catenary, especially since you don't have to worry about poles tracking along the wire.
Or a connecting piece with hooks and loops and the cat is tensioned in the middle of the module after it's in place.

I'm going to avoid trolley frogs if at all possible. I'm told they don't play nice with the heavy electric pantographs. I can't replace an E44 pantograph if I loose it, so I need to be careful with them.


the hooks and loops seem to be the way the modular group is going to do them. We figure we can end our wire an inch or two from the "end" of the modul, and have a small hook on the end. in between, there will be a "joiner" wire, where the contact wire will be flush with the bottom of the joiner, and the top part can be pulled over or soldered to hold it all together.

the top part will look similar to the Messenger wire, and will hopefully blend in with the wire relatively well.