Unitrack Catenary-pole Spacing?

[scott]

We've started to add catenary poles to our layout, since I wanted to get them down before we got any more serious about landscaping. So far, the poles look fine when evenly spaced around a curve (19-inch radius in this case). But when I tried to do a straight made up of various lengths of track, I couldn't get the poles spaced evenly--the bumps and ribs that fit the pole base just don't work out that way. I had figured on placing poles about 6 inches apart, but on my first attempt the spacing was noticeably irregular.

 

Does anybody have a better method for making the spacing work? Should I find some other way to attach the bases without using the built-in attachment points? Or do people just usually not worry about even spacing?

[scott]

Soooooooo....does silence mean "we dunno" or "smile and walk away slowly without turning around, this guy's a weirdo!" ?  ;) ;D

[Bernard]

Scott - I'm sure you are going to get an answer.

[CaptOblivious]

I'll admit: I don't know. I deal in Tomix stuff, and I don't know very much at all about Unitrack, and nothing about Kato catenary poles…  Sorry! Someone surely does, though.

 

Alternately, you could post photos of the various parts and how they fit together, and we can muddle through the problem with you :D

[Bernard]

The photos would help to see what the spacing problem looks like or.....Oh Bill!

[scott]

I have to work late tonight, but I'll try to get some pictures in the next few days.

[scott]

I took another crack at putting in some poles on a short straight section, and had pretty good luck with 7" spacing. But I think that was just luck; it probably won't work out on longer straights.

 

Your only choices for mounting the poles are on the round bumps near the end of each piece, or the "ribs" along the bottom of some (but not all) pieces:

 

 

Here's tonight's try:

 

[disturbman]

That looks pretty good to me.  :)

[Bernard]

Yeah, it does look evenly spaced from the photo.

[Guest ___]

I posted this question some months back, and no one replied. After some poking the general consensus was no one was really sure, or that there was no set defined spacing.

[Martijn Meerts]

In Europe at least, prototypically the spacing depends on many things, there is not general rule.

 

Really just go with what you think looks good, unless you want to be prototypically correct, in which case you need to make sure the wire between the poles can always be reached by the pantograph. Especially in turns that is important. On straights you'll also have to simulate a zig-zag pattern.

[scott]

My main problem on the first couple of attempts was that the spacing was so erratic that it just looked wrong. Without some sort of reason to change it (terrain, curve, whatever), it looks stupid if the spacing varies between 4 and 7 inches in a few feet of track. I'm not so much worried about getting the prototypical spacing right as just having a believeable-looking pattern.

 

Fortunately, curves are easier, if the radii don't keep changing. The 19-inch curves look fine with one pole per piece.

[scott]

Night shift at the catenary-pole plant:

 

[Sushi Train]

MMMMM Catenary-pole donuts and milk!

 

My 2 cents.....well, 1 cent, the problem I see is that until you landscape you wont know if that's too many, that pic to me looks too crowded...but what do I know.  :'(

[Martijn Meerts]

In the curves it looks fine to me, on the straight it might be a bit too close.. But that's if you consider prototype spacing etc.

[scott]

OK--well, I got hung up with other problems and didn't get any more poles out, so we'll have to wait and see. 7 inches is about 93 scale feet, so maybe I can stretch it out a bit elsewhere.