steeple cab project

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I completely agree on your thoughts with the overhead wire and I said as much to a friend who decided to build them for a small display layout .....Joe insisted that the overheads were no big deal ....sort of " if he could make them anyone could " .......I really don't know if the overhead wire actually works or is just for show and the electricity is provided by the rails like normal . I'll have to ask Joe .
Given that I'm going with a dockside layout I wondered if the overhead wires would be located so close to water in real life and I was told that yes , that would be the case . I'm modeling a 1920's era ......probably going to have a couple of little diesels ( boxcab or two since I built those little Grandt Line units ) and maybe a 0-4-0 steamer . What the heck , I can just make it up if I feel like it . The layout will be about 25' x 2 1/2 ' in size but will have areas jutting out so as to break the monotony .

Overhead wire for traction and trolley layouts is not very difficult. A few sturdy poles, some phosphur bronze wire, and some fittings are all that is necessary.

"traction" overhead (as opposed to the PRR stuff i'm building) pretty much consists of a pair of poles with a wire cross span stretched across. Above each track in the cross span is a little fitting that supports the "trolley" wire. Turnouts have trolley "frogs", where the trolley pole wheel can be guided one way or another, but these are little more than "plates" with little guides on the side, to which the trolley wire is hooked and soldered to.

Unless you plan to run something BIG (GG1, E33, etc.) you don't need to build an especially sturdy system. A steeple cab won't likely place enough pressure on the wire to justify "heavier" construction. Even if you decide to use pantographs instead of trolley poles (as some traction railroads did), I think you can get away without having to make complex turnout pull offs.

I was thinking idler cars , especially since I'll be unloading a train ferry that I have partially built Voco Marine ( became Bearco I think ) ferry that needs a TON of kitbashing . But you bring up some good points on thinking the whole process through .

Thanks , Terry

Actually thats exactly what they did. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure i saw photos of the New Haven loading a car float with EF-4s (more commonly known as E33s) from under the wire, and those were big motors! You should be able to get away with it.