N Scale Catenary System

[Sir Madog]

Is there any other catenary system on the market than those of Kato or Tomix?

 

I´d like to string wire, and both makes appear to be too fragile to do that.

[inobu]

I did a lot of research on this topic and you have a few alternatives which most are really expensive when you use the metal versions.

 

This is from one thread

 

You can make catenary in N scale, but the practical question is how do get to the tracks with catenary?  How do you clean the tracks? How  do you reach a car in a yard?  You don't have the space to put your hand into a yard and or under the catenary and turn your hand. At the most you can wiggle your fingers under the wires.

 

Sommerfledt is expensive but they make catenary and pantographs. The problem with that dealer is the minimum order.

 

http://www.eurorailhobbies.com/erh/sommerfeldt.asp

 

Viessman also offers N scale catenary.

 

http://www.reynaulds.com/catalog/dept_379.aspx

 

An Eastpenn.org tuturial that includes building N scale catenary.

 

http://www.eastpenn.org/nscalewirehanging.pdf

 

 

Magnetic wire was the best solution for the line. It's coated and comes in a lot of gauges (32 - 36) and in colors. There are a number of guys that posted good info and links to sources.

 

I have compiled all of my poles and wires (Kato) and will build a few solid poles to hold the tension but most of the poles will be for looks.

 

In any case it is costly endeavor.

 

Inobu

[Sir Madog]

Thanks, Inobu!

 

I did not think of Viessman - it is not as pricey as Sommerfeldt. Both are no bargain, but a little bit less expensive here in Germany then in the US.

[andreas]

I am not sure, but is this one strong enough?

 

http://www.dapol.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=526&category_id=59&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=59

 

Andreas

[CaptOblivious]

If you can find it, Ginga Model in Japan makes etched-brass catenary designed to hang from Tomix and Kato catenary poles, and in lengths to match FineTrack and Unitrack.

 

http://www.gingamodel.net/kasenbd.html

[to2leo]

Neat offerings. 

I wonder if it is possible to use black stitching strings with what Kato and Tomix are offering, the strings are light weight and thin enough to be in scale.

[Eliphaz]

This Thread about Catenary

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,1633.0.html

is how I found the JNS forum.

 

the etched brass stuff is beautiful of course,

but if you want something robust, consider EZ-Line from

http://www.berkshirejunction.com/

[inobu]

Neat offerings. 

I wonder if it is possible to use black stitching strings with what Kato and Tomix are offering, the strings are light weight and thin enough to be in scale.

 

 

The problem I found with string was the fibers are visible and kinda detracts from the presentation. Nylon presented similar issues but not as bad, securing it created the other problem.

 

The best all around was the magnet wire. You can solder the ends in place and its stable yet flexible at the right gauge.    

 

Inobu  

[Sir Madog]

I tried to use black stitching string ones as telegraph lines and found it a hassle to work with. I ended up with a lot of broken telegraph poles! Would not want to use it for catenary.

 

As the Ginga Model stuff seems to be long sold out, I think I might try re-working the Viesmann overhead wire, to be used with Kato masts.

[cteno4]

I have seen the ez line displayed at lots of shows and it looks like cable, with no real threading. they usually have a little motor thats boinging a rod on the wires over and over to show how tough it is to being repeatedly slapped around.

 

i worry more about dust in the long run getting on stuff like this and trying to clean it! even etched metal would tend to collect stuff fast. perhaps an ionic air cleaner along with a good air cleaner would help as well as with the rest of the scenery and the trains!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[KenS]

Although ionic air cleaners remove dirt from the air, part of the way they do it is by giving it a charge that tends to make it stick to things, like walls and furniture, not just to the collector plate in the cleaner itself.  Such a cleaner in a layout room might make the dust problem worse, not better.

 

I have several ionic cleaners around the house, but none in the basement with the layout.

 

I'm eventually going to do catenary wire, and I'd been thinking about using EZ-line, but I'm a long ways from doing that yet.

[Sir Madog]

Installing catenary is quite common in Europe and to my knowledge (and experience), dust has never been much of an issue with wire/etched metal or stamped metal overhead. I don´t know about e-z line, the rubbery material may "attract" dust, just like stitching string does.

 

An open issue remains the question of how to clean the track, once you have strung the overhead.  As most N scale locos do not have this dreaded traction tire, running a track cleaning car like the one from Dapol may ease that problem.

[cteno4]

actually a lot of the japanese trains do use traction tires so you do have to be a mite careful about the cleaners you use on your rails so they wont attack the traction tires. track cleaning and other maintenance is an issue with catenary as once its in place its hard to get around. at least the ez line is forgiving if you do need to poke fingers in to do something or recover a derailed train, etc. i have seen long term complaints on us train boards of dealing with dust and muck forming on strung telegraph wires a lot on us layouts using an assortment of stuff. mainly that its really delicate cleaning then to make sure you dont rip out the wires/poles while trying to clean them. again the ez wire wont have this problem as much with its bit of give, but could collect more gunk than wire might.

 

it is hard as so many Japanese scenes have lots of catenary wires along with a host of other electrical wires that can be real rats nests and really make a scene! there is the visual scale issue in that even though you might get the wire to scale it might just look funny to have too much in a scene, some details at certain scales, even though correct, just dont look right visually. this on top of the fact most layout viewing angles where you are looking down on the scene rather than sideways or up. having that layer of wire in the view path of a lot of the scene is going to change it. for good or bad im not sure as i have not seen many layouts in person with much catenary or other wires, mainly seen pictures shot at really the perfect scene angle, usually not the normal viewing angle.

 

ken i have heard conflicting reports on the ionic cleaners and the charging of escaped dust particles, not sure what to believe. i have had some folks in the video biz swear by them for the studio where they have ionized dust coating the inside of their electronic equipment (left on all the time), others have said what you did is that the stuff that escaped was super charged and thus stuck to stuff wayyy better than regular dust. both make logical sense, so dont know what the scoop is in practice. i have had good luck with regular hepa filters in cutting down dust, but noise and air currents are also then required for them to function well.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[KenS]

it is hard as so many Japanese scenes have lots of catenary wires along with a host of other electrical wires that can be real rats nests and really make a scene! there is the visual scale issue in that even though you might get the wire to scale it might just look funny to have too much in a scene, some details at certain scales, even though correct, just dont look right visually. this on top of the fact most layout viewing angles where you are looking down on the scene rather than sideways or up. having that layer of wire in the view path of a lot of the scene is going to change it. for good or bad im not sure as i have not seen many layouts in person with much catenary or other wires, mainly seen pictures shot at really the perfect scene angle, usually not the normal viewing angle.

 

That's a good point. I'm planning to do telephone wires in some of my built-up areas, as well as catenary, as visible wiring is an important scenic element of Japanese urban areas. Placement is something I'm going to have to plan carefully, to avoid blocking typical viewing angles.

[cteno4]

Ken,

 

I would also do a small scale test to see if it works well visually. when doing the architectural modeling it was always odd to find that certain things just did not work well at certain scales. something to do with how they minds eye looks at a scale model. certain details stick out too much or not at all at some scales. always a trick to find out which do at n scale. never seen a lot of examples of heavy wiring done in n scale. only the odd telegraph/phone line here and there, high power cables and a few street car and train catenaries. again i never have seen these up close and personal except for a few phone lines, but never really looked hard at them to see how they felt in scale.

 

definitely have not seen examples of any at the density you can get in japan! will be interesting to hear your experiences!

 

i was going to play with using a lot of phone, power, and light poles in busy street areas to see if they would do the trick to give the appearance of lots of wires going on w/o putting in the actual wires. see if the minds eye will fill in the detail! problem is in most street scenes the wires will be right in the middle of the picture so hard to get any angles that they wont be in the way of a lot of the street and building details visually.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[marknewton]

I haven't used EZ-line for catenary, but I did use it extensively on my old US prototype layout for stringing telephone, utility and code line poles. I also used it for the rigging on biplanes when I built model aircraft. I didn't have any significant problems with dust, the EZ-line seems to have a fairly smooth surface which doesn't tend to hold dust. When I did need to dust it, I either used a camera brush, or a quick blast of air from the airbrush hose.

 

On the subject of cleaning track under catenary, a friend of mine uses a battery-powered track cleaning car with simple cleaning blocks made of hardboard/masonite, which seems to be quite effective.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[David]

Is EZ-line conductive for making live catenary, or is it just for show? I see it being refered to as some kind of polymer, so I'm guessing it can't conduct electricity.

[Eliphaz]

you are right, EZline its non conducting rubber.

Live cat is another thing altogether. I know there people who do it, but I think most people who put up the Viesmann stuff are not using it to supply power.

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Wrong thread. Disregard.