I have purchased some of the Vollmer catenary products just to test drive it. I am going to use a small oval of Kato Unitrack for the test. One rail will be powered and the overhead catenary will be powered. Does anyone know of any N-scale locos that can get one leg of power from the pantogragh? There has to be some out there. Any and all comments and suggestions are welcome.
I don't know of any specific models right now. Surely some exist. I am wondering if some of the Pennsy GG1 versions which have been sold are capable? I believe so, but right now do not recall. Maybe something European Roco has made? Anything Japanese?
Minitrix and Arnold made locos that would route power thru the pantograph. Be willing to pay top dollar for a loco. German EBay is a great place to find them if you can stomach the shipping.
The Crocodile locomotives by Arnold have the ability to run from the catenary or the track as needed. Got to love a rod operated electric!
The Bachmann Hippo (HHP-8) will do it. You have to pop the rectangular box off the roof to find the slide switch to go from track to live pantagraphs. (sorry for the duplicate post Jerry.) There is the black switch in the middle of the circuit board. http://www.spookshow.net/loco/files/bachmannhhp8mech.JPG
Thanks for the input.....so, with the Bachmann HHP-8, does it matter which rail is electrically alive to go along with the catenary? I will have to find an instruction manual for the HHP-8; maybe it will give me some more insight.
[video=youtube;Bvf5QJLE28M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvf5QJLE28M[/video] [video=youtube;XMmR_Ij7XjM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMmR_Ij7XjM[/video]
Not to my knowledge, they generally go for the, more practical when you think about cleaning the track under it, method of just using the catenery masts without the wires. Correctly scaled down N scale catenery wire would be practically invisible anyway.
True. But it can still look quite reasonable. I grew up with the Milwaukee Road electrics in service, and saw the GN electrification. It did show up more than one would believe. Especially the MILW double trolley wires. They stood out from a fair distance.
50 years ago, I experimented in HO with hot wire and each rail as independent ground returns. That allowed two motors, PRR P5a and GN Z1, to be operated independently. Operation worked well, but the hand made catenary didn't hold up when tensioned properly. Marklin was the only manufacturer offering operational catenary in HO, but it was hugely out of scale, and too expensive for a young family with two kids just out of the military and starting a new career.
there is a working catenariesystem in N take a look at http://www.sommerfeldt.de/index2.html it´s german of course.
Just thinking about this, if the positive is coming in through the pantograph, is the negative going out through both rails or just one? If it is just 1 then you can't turn the locos around or have a reversing loop, if it is both you can't link in with normal power and run regular stuff under the catenery. How do you plan to operate it? -James
This has been a lot more organized for decades than you might think here, may be news to some: www.teamsavage.com/ncat/ncat.html My old friend Hal Riegger did an incredible job of pioneering working catenary in N with his Penn View Lines in the Milwaukee Road style. It should not be forgotten. He literally wrote 'the history of Ncat'. The standards, practices, and experimentation he did developed into the standards that have been developed. So while I'm not accusing this thread of trying to re-invent the wheel, you are at least touching on the pole and the wire!
James, that is a good question. I was thinking that one wire would be from transformer to one rail. The other wire would be from transformer through a DPDT switch and on to either the other rail or to catenary, depending on the loco I wanted to run. What I don't know is whether, when you are picking a rail, if it matters which one that gets wired directly to the transformer. I would think not because the HHHP-8 can be run through standard DC on both rails or using the catenary. Clear as mud, right? Also, I have read a couple of comments on how the catenary wire is not even close to scale; that is OK with me. This is more of an experiment than anything. If it works, it would be fun to keep it on the small layout (probably 2' x 3').
I don't believe anyone is actually trying to re-invent the system. I was an active participant in NCat. I had a double sided eight foot NTrak module under wire, which has been described with photos elsewhere on this site. Long time subscriber to the newsletter John "Corky" Whitlock published. Even having the pleasure of Hal visiting my home years ago. NCat works, but appearance is very crude. I developed a system for making poles which were much more realistic. There was also another fellow (no longer available) who manufactured really nice poles and pantographs.
Nice looking structures, but this catalog page didn't appear to show any prefabricated catenary, messenger, and contactor system assemblies. Did I miss something?
James. Most motors are double-ended so I didn't have reversing loops, just planned to have the motor run around the train at stub terminals. Other than that, I had a loop for continuous operation. Also, never turning a motor allowed me to assign a separate ground (return) rail to each motor. Though if I removed a motor for repair, I had to be careful putting it back on the track to make sure it had its ground wheels on the correct rail. As I said, I had only two motors. Had I ever added a third, I would have been in trouble....LOL Of course DCC solves the assigned rail problem.
