Mass Produced Catenary Poles--Would They Sell?

I would like to see a catenary system that clicks into their EZ track line. That doesn't seem like to tricky of an idea. In fact, since the tracks come in standard sizes, you could pretty much make the catenary standard too.



I met a guy who appeared to have successfully made the catenary with styrene. I only met him twice at my Hobby shop. He showed me pictures, but I've never bumped into him ever again. I am told that the styrene would have difficulty holding up to the strains involved, but then this guy used thin brass wire much like Andy Rubbo does. It looked really good (everything prototypically to scale), and I'd love to know how it has held up over the years

Thin wire has its own perils though. Indeed, when I last talked to Andy, he was showing me how he rebuilt is pantographs to be much lighter on the wire, and so that the upper portions broke away in cases of a snag. He apparently was having quite a bit of trouble keeping the wires from breakin under the strain!



Heavy duty it is, my Reading Company Module took a direct hit from a carjack in the trunk of my car, and it only popped some of the hangars. The Catenary pole itself didn't even move a little bit.

Unfortunately, that thread is a little outdated. I'd love to do another one (indeed, I tried to film myself building the Reading Catenary, though somewhat unsuccessfully).

My construction is pretty much the same as Andy Rubbo's, except admittedly I'm a little sloppy in that I haven't created all of the jigs and specialized tools he recommends. I have a well worn print out of his Keystone Modeler articles.

The main difference is that I use heavier wire (0.025 instead of 0.015 and smaller), and in some cases, steel wire instead of phosphur bronze.







I think the one thing that I've learned so far is that catenary is not THAT hard. Generally speaking, I can produce a few poles a night, and several lengths of wire in an afternoon, when I have all the supplies i need (and I need to order more!)

What is really helpful is to produce jigs for putting it all together. Even though you will have to custom build structures for every inch of the railroad, a little forward planning makes this pretty easy.

And of course, once you do a few, the rest gets easier.

As far as accessibility goes, its only a headache at first. I've gotten used to it, and found little frustration reaching around and in between the wire.

If electrics are your thing, don't talk yourself out of catenary. Its not nearly as hard as people make it out to be.

Speaking about portable Dioramas, I'm part of an NEC modular club. When I get my module back, I'll start making it look like the North Elizabeth train station in the late 1970s.

We do ALL electrics though (New Haven, Milwaukee, etc). Most of us are in the Philadelphia area, though we have interested members up and down the east coast, and even a few out in the midwest. We've already been to the East Penn Traction Club Convention last May, and the Model Trolley & Transit Meet at New Brunswkick in October (there is video of us there on youtube, though few catenary is up at that time).

Seems there was a US based manufactuer,Model Memories lurking in the background.
www.modelmemories.com is the site address.
Also does NYC style 3rd rail,NYNH&H anchor bridges(for catenary) and good looking single track
poles for the New Canaan/Danbury Branches and sidings off the main line.

Peco and Sommerfelt have created a "Modern" 25kv Catenary system,that seems to easy to build
the May '16 issue of "Railway Modeler" a British Magazine(published by Peco)had a separate booklette,
basicly the instruction Manual for the system developed by them.

Of note:the June '16 issue of "Railfan and Railroad" has a cover story of Denver's RTD "Heavy Electric" system to DIA
and the future plans for the SL V Clones built by Rotem.
The Peco system is a match to that catenary.



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