How to Electrify a railroad

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I think you need a substation GEC......All that juice has to come from somewhere. I also noticed that your soldering skills have greatly improved over the course of this thread. Keep it up.

You know, i actually have an open corner of my layout that i could do that with. I'll have to see what i figure, it shouldn't be hard if i use some of the structural trusses and things available to me. Thanks for the soldering comment!

I am amazed at the dedication you catenary guys show to the hobby. That is alot of intricate work. :mrgreen:

I agree, and have to say that commuter/passenger/electrics modeling is in a league well above typical modeling

as much as i like to appear awesome, i think all it really takes is patience. Its easy to become confused staring at a web of wires. Your eyes get lost in the maze. Most photos aren't sharp enough to really catch all the wires, and when they do, its hard to figure which in the jumble is which. However, if you think about it intuitively, rather than with what your eyes show you, coupled with some basic rules, the catenary no longer appears so complex. there will always be at least one set of wires touching the pantograph at any point, and for very short sections, two wires (such as turnouts, crossovers, drawbridges, and "breaks"). Much of the confusion comes from all the Auxiliary, pull-offs, and box catenary that tend to appear around those areas in the previous parenthesis. I've been working on creating "top-down" visuals that show the catenary wire from above, so that all the auxiliaries and hangers don't distract from the basic path, making it easier to understand for others who want to model it.

I'll give you that this is an uncommon prototype to model, but i think that should change.

Cab: Thanks for the Welcome. There is a lot more action over here.

Yep! Join the party!

Cant wait to see the signal arms and im also interested to see how your gonna do a signal tower. Did you get your silverliner Yet?

Yeah, i think i'm going to do the signal arms special on these two "tall" bridges. on most "normal" bridges, its just an angle piece bolted to the pole on the side opposite the grab irons, yet i notice that when obstacles are in the way, the signal arms will also rise up over the obstacle (a highway in my case), looking like smaller transmission arms. I'm going to do that, and then return the the regular "simple" angle for the regular height bridges.

The signal tower is probably going to be bashed from an IHC kit i had lying around (Waste not!). Its not 100% perfect, it does have the basic structure and shape (i noticed that the "legs" of the IHC bridge are a little different from the legs of the prototype, but they have the same "X" configuration. the "Bridge" portion also has the same pattern to it). the transmission poles will be made of special shapes company brass lattice with maybe some styrene bits. I'm going to have to build concrete footings and also find a way to make sure this new bridge stays anchored into the layout.

I have not got my Silverliner yet, and I'm getting impatient, but I'll wait until after tomorrow to ask about it.

Heres some interesting stuff for you.. For extreme curves like the ones at Gap Pa The PRR took a page out of the NH book with triangular catenary.. also notice the verticle angle stock to hold the transmission lines on the curve. This would look really good on your layout.

I WOULD try to take that on except that it terrifies me. The truth is i just drove past there today (it was Conrail days at Strasburg), and i was looking at that wire. It doesn't continue to be "triangular" forever, and i'm unclear on how it all comes together on the straight sections. Is that "top" wire supposed to be the auxiliary, but instead of being "inline", is offset to be verticle?

Also, that station REALLY depresses me. It looked worse today when i passed it.

also check out these wierd transmission line things .. I think they are tensioners ??

I think you're right. I JUST read something about those things and why they were like that, but i can't remember it now. I think there is special situations where they are needed for that extra stability, but I'll have look through my internet history for the week to find it.