Has anyone ever thought about using, or actually used horse hair for telephone and hydro wires? I was doing some research and it turns out that the average thickness of the tail hair of a horse is approximately 1" in N-scale. Now I know that actually stringing up "wires" on a layout can be tedious, and that once in place they are easy things to snag and pull out, but it sure would be cool!! I am not even close to that stage on my layout, so I can't give it a try for a while, but I would love to know if anyone has experimented with it. Cheers,
P.S. I should give credit to John Bartolotto for his reply about using hair for reins in the "Scratchbuild a N-scale Stagecoach" thread. http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?135550-Scratchbuild-an-n-scale-stagecoach
Ben, Thanks for the credit but the credit actually belongs to an article that Tom Knapp did N scale magazine years ago. The only credit I deserve is for remembering what Tom did. John
In short lengths horse hair should present no problems. But remember that horse hair was one of the first materials attached to a needle, to measure moisture in the air. Moisture increases the length of the hair. When used in long pieces could produce problems over time unless humidity can be closely controlled.
If I was gonna put up wires,it would DEFINATELY not be any kind of animal or natural thread material,moisture,heat,ETC,will just affect anything like that.There's an HO club near me,one of the guys put up a long row of telephone poles around a curve in the road using cotton or linen based thread,after about a year,it shrunk so much,the poles were leaning at a 45 degree angle as they pulled toward each other.Maybe fine Rayon or Nylon thread would be a much better choice,even REALLY light fishing line,although that would probably not hang quit right..Actually,the best bet would probably be individual strands of actual copper wire,painted black..
I think horsehair would work. It might depend on what beasties you may have lurking that would eat it, otherwise I've seen antique crafts using horsehair (and human hair) still in good shape. There is a taper to tail hair, so you may be chopping sections out of full-length hairs to maintain a uniform look. Horsehair is not the cheapest stuff in the world unless you have a donor in mind that won't mind the loss of a few hairs. The drape (shape) of proto wires is done to avoid problems with thermal expansion. Using horsehair and compensating for humidity will require experimenting, though I doubt changes would be extreme. It's considered pretty stable FWIW. Better paintbrushes are made of the stuff and I don't see major changes in them with water-based paint. The problem is getting the consistent drape/sag from the same group of wires and each group of wires from tower to tower. That is guaranteed to drive you nuts, especially if you need to do repairs afterward. Me, if you put a gun to my head, I'd cheat and have only one or two lines strung, with crews in the process of hanging new wire. If your towers are anywhere in reach, the power lines will get smacked. Depending on your tower spacing, the sag may not look right to you, either. Experiment, if you like, if you have a handy donor. Sandro, obviously one would only get a horse with a NMRA Master Modeler certificate or equivalent fly-tying experience.
Unless you have a consistent supply I would not use them. Berkshire line is the stuff invented for running Power lines that don't carry power. I comes in two thicknesses and three colors. Because it is an elastic material snag do not destroy scenery. That or tear apart a screwed up motor for it's armature wire. Use that and you could even put warning lights on your high towers. There is a string of them in Indiana that all blink in unison, so only a single blinker circuit would be needed.
My only use for horsehair has been for cattails and reeds on some of my modules. Horsehair can be dyed and is available in packs of different colors. However the length in those packs is way to short for power line use. One thought for power lines would be to use the smallest model ship rigging thread. The is some finer stuff out there in brown, tan, and black colors, but still probably not quite as fine as horeshair. However I'm not aware of any issues with the ship modeling lines as far as shrinkage goes, but somebody like Pete Nolan may be able to shed more light on this product, since it has been years since I built a full rigged sailing ship.
You might be able to get used horse hair for free from a violin shop. Horse hair is what's used on string instrument bows and must be replaced with some regularity. The hair would have a residue of rosin on it since string players use it to increase the grip of the hair.
Good input. I hadn't really considered the fact that it might shrink considerably, makes sense though. I had a look online to get an idea of availability of it. There are a few shops which sell graded hair for use in instrument bows as LocoHorn mentioned. $8 looked like it would buy more than enough for my small layout, but we shall see. As some of you mentioned, snagging it is definitely a concern. It may end up being a finishing touch thing, or even selectively done for photographs. No telling until I try. Cheers,
I googled Berkshire model wire and found Bershire Junctions EZ line. I probably would use this for telephone wires, etc. They recomend the fine line for N scale. They have a neat short video in which a pole falls on the line which stretches like a rubber band and rebounds without breaking. This material is synthetic and should have fewer problems with humidity. You main concern should be accidental breakage of the lines as you move around the layout. Terl
Recently used EZ line for the cables on a sandhouse model. Really REALLY! like this stuff. Being very elastic, if the 1:1 scale 0-5-0 (clumsy modeler) hits the line, it gives instead of ripping stuff out of the ground.
HI. I snuck in from over from the z scale side but I thought I might just throw out some ideas. I got some horse hair laying around because 1) My wife is teaching music and her father makes violins, so she has some here sitting on the piano, 2) I am a reenactor, that does stuff from the Romans and Celts to modern times, so I had gotten some horse hair a long time ago for some such reason.prodject or another. I was toying with the idea of horse hair to use for wires too. I am also finding long blonde hairs that my Frau has sheaded here and there and thought, hmmm perhaps these could be used for somthing. I got to thinking, about temp and humidity and how that could effect things. I then thougt of the next step, what about a wig? It is Halloween season and I am sure you can find a cheap witches wig with really long nylon hair. Black or any other color, silver white maybe. Should be enough hair to last a while and long enough. I would share the horse hair but I cam sure customs would have a fit if I tried sending this stuff to the US from Europe. If you really want to try to find some, ask the reenactor and mountain men guys. You got to go outside the box for some things.
Actually spider silk is quite strong and durable. Once you have your workers trained it is easy enough to turn them loose to repair any damage. I have found the Black Widows make the strongest silk of the spiders I have available. Once they are trained and pass their lineman test I issue them tiny hard hats and let them go to work.
