Neon Noir Designs

[Madsing]

Hi Joe,

 

I think that there are two additional vertical supports above the overhead wires. See the photo below. Actually, each line has two wires. The top wire has the shape of a catenary, it is only there to support the bottom wire which is in contact with the train's pantograph. I think that this vertical bar is called "vertical isolation bar", it is meant to hold the catenary wire (which lays on top of the two black cylinders), and it also maintains the distance to the registration arm constant and stable.

 

 

I have designed and 3D-printed a few of these for my layout last year, but I need much more and there is so much variety. I can share the files if it's useful.

 

Marc

 

[Kamome442]

22 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Seems like those fold up connectors to the rod may end up being more bulky looking than just the whole part etched. Getting to these sizes getting perfectly scale may just be a bit too hard, sometimes small details at scale are so small they disappear at a foot so enlarging a tad makes them more noticeable saying what they are at normal viewing distances. I get it that many want things spot on, but we look at things in not usual distances on our models usually and to make it look right to the minds eye things need a tad of fudging sometimes.

 

jeff

 

That's a good point. I will still test one out of curiosity, I will also test the flat etch version.

[Kamome442]

21 hours ago, Madsing said:

I think that there are two additional vertical supports above the overhead wires. See the photo below. Actually, each line has two wires. The top wire has the shape of a catenary, it is only there to support the bottom wire which is in contact with the train's pantograph. I think that this vertical bar is called "vertical isolation bar", it is meant to hold the catenary wire (which lays on top of the two black cylinders), and it also maintains the distance to the registration arm constant and stable.

 

There are the two supports for the upper wire (is that what is referred to as the messenger wire?) on the 2D drawings, I just haven't included them on the 3D model yet. These should be pretty straightforward to make as they just drop straight down with couple of insulators to isolate the wire.

 

21 hours ago, Madsing said:

I have designed and 3D-printed a few of these for my layout last year, but I need much more and there is so much variety. I can share the files if it's useful.

 

That is a lovely piece of work! I totally agree about the amount of variety. There seems to no end to the amount of variation. Thank you for the offer, if you are happy to share the files, it cannot hurt to have more information.

Joe

[UnfinishedKit]

@Kamome442 I’ll be passing through Japan briefly, but several times over the next few months. Can’t promise anything but are there any details you’d like me to photograph if I can get them?

[Kamome442]

On 4/28/2025 at 11:39 PM, UnfinishedKit said:

@Kamome442 I’ll be passing through Japan briefly, but several times over the next few months. Can’t promise anything but are there any details you’d like me to photograph if I can get them?

 

Thank you for the offer, that is incredibly kind. I am having to use some guesswork when comes to the dimensions of each part because most parts of catenary contain large quantities of hair standy uppy juice so it not something that can be measured easily. Luckily I can get a lot information from pictures of pretty trains by looking at the background. So sharing any photos of trains is always useful. If you should see some strange and interesting catenary and have the time to take a quick picture that would be amazing.

For instance I recently noticed this funky little critter from pictures being shared of the recently closed section of the KK Expressway:

Source: Google Streetview

Enjoy your time in Japan, not at all jealous 😉

Joe

Edited April 30 by Kamome442

[Kamome442]

You Animal

I took a break from Catenary this week and did a little more work on the next batch of road signs. Drawing up the animals has in all honestly driven me slightly mad. There seems to be no end to the variants. I decided to limit the myself to 94, which is not even half of what is out there. Sadly I could not find good quality reference images of one or two that I wanted to include but regardless I am happy with the final selection:

 

I have a few gaps to fill on some of the sheets so I thought I would add some rectangular warning signs for a little variety.

 

I sill have a few more of these to draw up and then I can start to organise all the sheets, I think there will be 7 or 8 pages in total.

 

Joe

 

[brill27mcb]

Love the animal signs!

[UnfinishedKit]

Love these. 
 

if you are looking for more inspiration then the advertising signs that you see on every power pole and a a lot of station canopy supports would be a great addition. 
 

 

This is the sake advert in our living room 

 

 

[Kamome442]

21 hours ago, UnfinishedKit said:

Love these. 
 

if you are looking for more inspiration then the advertising signs that you see on every power pole and a a lot of station canopy supports would be a great addition. 
 

 

This is the sake advert in our living room 

 

That is an interesting idea, thanks @UnfinishedKit It would certainly have the potential to add a lot of character and colour to a street scene. 

[Kamome442]

I have finished drawing up a test etch for this design:

 

The dimensions are not set in stone I just wanted to get something ready for testing to keep the project moving forward. Once I receive the etches I can have a go at making them up and work on some improvements. Looking at jeff's idea to make the trusses longer that could be cut to size works well for this style of catenary. It will be an issue for this style:

 

Seeing as the ends flare out cutting them won't work. I do have an idea for making these adjustable so I am going to draw up the designs this week.

Just a thought but would anyone be interested in me making up some etched wires to string between the portals?

 

 

There are companies that make etched wires but they always look like the top option. I was thinking I could offer some alternative styles like the bottom design used around Yurakucho.

Finally the commission I was working on has been given the okay so I am happy to share what I have been working on.

It is a set of ladders for signals, there are two designs that I sent over. Here is one of the designs:

 

Joe

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

Technically, anything with a pattern could be extended. It would be a bit more challenging to accurately glue / solder sections together, but it could work. If you want, I could test some things. I do have several non-standard track spacings and 3-track sections.

 

Etched wires could be interesting, although I wonder if it's doable. You might end up having to do quite a few different lengths to make it fit with various curve radii. Could of course always do a quick proof of concept for some straight sections.

 

[Kamome442]

On 5/5/2025 at 12:32 AM, UnfinishedKit said:

if you are looking for more inspiration then the advertising signs that you see on every power pole and a a lot of station canopy supports would be a great addition. 

 

I have added a few signs to the current pack that could be attached to posts. The theme of the pack is warning signs so these are linked to construction and general works. I will work on other advertising on future downloads.

 

On 5/7/2025 at 7:58 AM, Martijn Meerts said:

Technically, anything with a pattern could be extended. It would be a bit more challenging to accurately glue / solder sections together, but it could work. If you want, I could test some things. I do have several non-standard track spacings and 3-track sections.

 

It would be great to send you some samples. I have ordered 5 copies of a test sheet so I will have 4 to send out for testing and feedback. The repeating pattern does make to quite straightforward for extending. Like you say it would be challenging to actually align and glue. The idea I had to make that easier may or may not work, I won't know until the etch arrives and can be tested. It looks like this:

 

It is a little complex but so is the prototype. The main truss (middle) folds up to give the basic shape. Then there is a top and bottom rail to add on both sides, these fold to from L beams with the brackets to attach to the legs attached. There are little slots along the L beams to locate over small tabs on the main truss to align everything correctly. 

The main beam takes up a lot of space on an etch however the L beams fit in much smaller spaces. I thought I could make an adjustable version with different length L beams and the main truss split into two halves. Then I could offer different length middle sections to vary the span.

 

Essentially you would attach the outer sections of the main truss to the upper L beam using the tabs to locate it accurately. Then depending on which length L beam you select there would be a middle truss that folds up and drops into the gap. then the lower L beams can be slotted on the secure everything in place and hide the joins.

 

On 5/7/2025 at 7:58 AM, Martijn Meerts said:

Etched wires could be interesting, although I wonder if it's doable. You might end up having to do quite a few different lengths to make it fit with various curve radii. Could of course always do a quick proof of concept for some straight sections.

 

They really aren't my thing as they need to be slightly over scaled to work. I think have no wires looks better however I know some people like to see the wires. There are some etched wires out there, Cityscape Studios recently used some on his Tokyo Station diorama. It is good point that there are lots of different lengths that would be needed. The advantage is they are so simple only takes a few minutes to draw them up so I would be willing to give it a go. I could design in an optional attachment point on the catenary to hold them in place.

 

Joe

[Martijn Meerts]

I think a lot of the people that would be interested in these wouldn't mind a little gluing / soldering to get custom length ones, so the option to have various length middle sections would be a nice addition.

 

It would probably be worth giving the etched wires a try if they're not a lot of work. If they sell well, you can easily get more of them etched. And if not, it's not a lot of wasted time. Personally I'm more in the camp of wanting to have wires if I have the masts as well. Just the masts always looks a bit off to me, even if to-scale wire would be pretty much invisible. Having wires is of course also a terrible pain when you need to clean the track 🙂

 

I have built my own catenary from scratch before (fully functional actually, for Euro locos with working pantographs), and there I made a quick jig for the wire, and just soldered together some copper wire. It was rather fiddly, but very doable for the simple type of wire. The 2nd wire you posted would of course be quite a bit more work to scratch build.