Has anyone here played with any live catenary in N-Scale? I would like to attempt it on a very small (2' x 3') layout. So far, I have read about Vollmer catenary but wanted to see if anyone here has used anything else. I would like it to actually feed power to electric locos. Any help would be appreciated.
This has been around for a long time, but has (sadly) seen interest fade: http://www.teamsavage.com/ncat/ncat.html There are some photos in one of my railImages albums, of poles I made a few years back. They were intended to emulate a Milwaukee Road prototype. My soldering job was not the most attractive to view: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=701
Single-minded determination and deep pockets are two essential ingredients in achieving credible results with regard to live catenary in N Scale. The compromises in terms of realism are virtually endless, because you cannot model catenary wire at scale in N - it would disintegrate if you so much as touched it, unless it was fabricated from a special metallic alloy that would be prohibitively expensive. Once you accept the fact that live (or even simulated) catenary in N Scale will be perceived as unrealistic, you are faced with coming up with your own design. Most N Scale modelers depicting an electric railroad simply put up catenary poles and call it a day.
It is indeed a bunch of work. Having done it, I can state that truth. NCat seemed just to crude, but it did and does work. So I went my own route. Cost was actually not that high for what I built. I used 1/16" no-flux brazing rod, (yes, rod diameter is probably too large. I never bothered to check it), and the other pieces were readily available at numerous hobby shops. Those being K&S Engineering brass and Detail Associates wire. The catenary I built in sections, using several jigs. I still should have them around here, somewhere. The pole assembly jigs I came upon within the past couple of weekends. It is slow, and VERY tedious work. But when done, it looks fairly decent, and the rewarding feeling is nice. Unfortunately, this likely explains the few trolley layouts we see any more these days.
I always thought that some nice etched .005 (or less) nickel silver compound catenary would be nice. Something less toylike than what's currently available. I gotta have something for the pantographs to rest on ! Randy
Randy- Just curious- Remember a while back, when we were talking about MILW pantographs? By chance did you ever try to run down that fellow I had named? until just now, I had completely forgotten all about that discussion.
I did some research today and ordered a Veissmann starter set. It will work with Kato Unitrack utilizing 11" radius curves so it will be perfect for the 2x3 layout. I will post some pics and updates.
I set up a four foot stretch of Summerfeldt catenery on an N-TRAK module years ago. I worked ok with an Arnold GG! runnig off it but I never did any more because it would have been a pain during track cleaning, especially during train shows. Lately I've been using the technique favored by Japanese N scalers of just using the catenery masts without the wires, true to scale N scale catenery wire would be alomst invisible to the naked eye at normal viewing distances anyway.
