How to Electrify a railroad

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I am interested in how their wires are joined together. I was looking at making a modular catenary set up, and very few people around here have ever attempted such a thing.

Modular, as in small sections of layout?, only with overhead wire? If that is the case, I saw these at Trainfest, in Milwaukee.

Wish I had taken a detail shot of how the wire was connected at each module boundary.

Yeah, it gets tougher with the Heavy Electrics as well. With a trolley layout, its just simple wiring. The Heavy electrics have more wires to hook together, and are not nearly as forgiving. The flast pantograph shoes easily catch on wire imperfections.

[Amtrak X995]

Hi
our layout is modular, we have at the end catenary poles, which we have pre-configured, pre-formed and numbered wires (from vissmann), that we can put in in an defined direction.
The wires have small hooks at the end, to hang at the small triangles. The upper wire goes throu an lug on the upper part of the pole



on the second pic you see the lug and the lower part to hang in

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Do you have any photographs that show these connections close up? I'm unfamiliar with that brand of catenary wire.

[Amtrak X995]

Hi

........ I'm unfamiliar with that brand of catenary wire.

those wires you can find on their homepage http://www.viessmann-modell.com/index.ph...%20H0.html (click on foto).
Those wire we bend on the end as a hook, the stright end goes thru the lug. This is an self made construct, only the raw wire we bought.
The vissmann wire is an steel wire with an smal cooper portion, it is stron enough, to make an clamping between the wire poles, so the wires has a little friction.
The sommerfeld wire is an pure cooper wire (better to solder) but not as good for making an clamping. Theis clamping goes for one modulare box to the other.
I try to find an close up pic.....

[Amtrak X995]

Hi

as promised, here on pic to show, how it work. On both sides of the modules stnads catenarpoles, were the pre- configured (numbered and marked) wires can hang in . The wire (the above one) goes thru an hole, the lower ons has an hook to go around. This works in this way on both sides of the modules . See the pic (shows an nj transit pole)

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Not necessarily useful for my Pennsy electrification, but at $5.00 a pole, these Catenary towers by Imagine That! Laser Art Products, are definitely worth it for anyone considering a free-lanced electric operation.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.imaginethatlaserart.com/home-mainmenu-1/hoscale/details/138/2/laser-kits/ho-scale/cantenary-tower">http://www.imaginethatlaserart.com/home ... nary-tower</a><!-- m -->

They are similar in style to the New Haven catenary, and I've seen similar structures in some Chicago suburban lines and the St. Clair tunnel electrification (a subsidiary of the Grand Trunk).

In fact, the only issue I see is that they appear to be single track structures, where a multiple track structure might be more appropriate for a suburban line.

However, given that this company also offers individual components, one might be able to kitbash such a structure seemlessly.

[e-paw]

Well hey look good GEC, but I'm wondering how sturdy they are. They look a little flimsy to me. :? I would think that brass one's are a bit stronger.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Eh, I'm sure they are reasonably strong. Besides, the equivalent brass structures would simply bend into an unfixable kink anyway.

The H-beam type i'm using probably will hold a little better, but thats not going to be for everyone, and it still costs more.

[Sumpter250]

After twenty+ years of going to shows with modules, this much I have learned:
1. Where ever possible: Nothing fragile at or near the module ends. This is where all the "hands" install the fitters, and slide the rail joiners, and break the trees and anything else that arms, hands, shirt / coat sleeves com in contact with.
2. Always have spare "fragile details" ready to install, when the destruction happens.
3. Always expect "required repairs". Even the module interface, needs occasional attention as a result of "transport damage".
4. It is worth all the effort, to be able to play with your toys in public, on a much larger layout than most of us have room for at home.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

After twenty+ years of going to shows with modules, this much I have learned:
1. Where ever possible: Nothing fragile at or near the module ends. This is where all the "hands" install the fitters, and slide the rail joiners, and break the trees and anything else that arms, hands, shirt / coat sleeves com in contact with.
2. Always have spare "fragile details" ready to install, when the destruction happens.
3. Always expect "required repairs". Even the module interface, needs occasional attention as a result of "transport damage".
4. It is worth all the effort, to be able to play with your toys in public, on a much larger layout than most of us have room for at home.

Actually, a modular set up is something i've been considering. I think I should make a mini-test set up to come up with good ways to join catenary wires.

I'm thinking either "tack soldering" the catenary together (between the Trolley Wire and Auxiliary), or bending the trolley wires into hooks that over lap on the ends, and have some sort of "pin" that holds it together.

The big problem though, is how do you keep tension on a modular set up, unless you have a continuous "loop" of catenary?

[BR60103]

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.

[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.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I've decided to "rewire" small display module with Reading Company style catenary. To my knowledge, only one other person (known here as AC_Catenary) has attempted any Reading Company electrifiction. I put the PRR wires back onto my 4x8 (and they need repairs from traveling around anyways).

I could not find the scale plans for Reading Catenary, so I drew up some plans based on Pennsylvania railroad Dimensions. There is an area where the PRR and the Reading parallel closely on the norristown line, and the catenary seem to be built to the same height and distances.


The following dimensions I borrowed from the PRR-

Rail-to-wire height- 22'

Rail to Steady-wire- 24'

Rail to cross-beam- 32'6"

outer track center to inside of catenary pole- 12' 6"

The following dimensions are extrapolated from measuring photos and determining their proportions, so don't quote it as true:

Average pole height- 55' 6"

transmission arm height from crossbeam- 22'

Transmission arm length- 5'

Corner brace- assumptions- creates a 30-60-90 degree triangle

Corner brace mounts- 8' below cross brace

- ~ 4' 7" to 5' from vertical pole


I have already begun building an mock-up (which is probably good enough to be used on my layout).

Have a look!

I used "H5" 5/16" H columns for the poles, "H4" H column for the cross beam, and I can't remember which stock the "T" brass came from, but its used in the corner sag braces. I have 0.025" Phosphor Bronze wire for the wires. I also have a jig that cuts 0.020 brass wire into grab irons that fit the H5 columns, And i will add those in as well!

The extra length on the bottom is for mounting purposes "Beneath" the surface of the layout.



Here is the prototype in Norristown. My catenary will be very similar to this in style.