Help with Choosing A Catenary System

[2railjon]

Merry Christmas to you, Rufus! And thank you for all your advice and help over the years!

[2railjon]

Heavy catenary equipment is in place!

[robert.]

Did you screw it to you work bench? I have an old Cummins that i left unbolted. I used it twice with no problem. 3rd time my grandfather was over. He wanted to use it. when he saw it not secured. He almost kicked my arse.

[bob turner]

I really like the orange. Mine is getting ready for an overhaul, maybe with orange enamel!

[2railjon]

Hi robert! I’ll pick up a couple bolts along with the wood dowels I’m going to use for the cat bases to secure the press to my bench. Although the press didn’t walk when I tested it, you can bet it will eventually tip over and land on my foot!

Bob, I guess it’s got a Halloween theme going on!

[2railjon]

31 support poles have been cut, bent, drilled, and soldered.

The bases are next!

[2railjon]

The old plastic bases have been knocked off and now I have to wait on the carrier wire to arrive to get the correct height for the new bases.

[robert.]

This has been a helpful thread! During a visit to mom's. I checked in on my old drill press. Only to find it getting rusty. Along with the headlight of my bike (cheap repop chrome). Why are things rusting in moms garage? Nothing before has rusted out there. So i pokes around for a while. I found the dryer vent to be clogged. When i mentioned it to her she says " some loads had to be run twice to dry" Vents clean now. Thanks for buying a new press.

[2railjon]

Glad I was of assistance, robert!

[2railjon]

Well, in for a penny in for a pound! I thought I’d experiment soldering up my own support and power line as opposed to buying sections already made up. So here is my soldering jig I made up.


Here’s what I learned, the ends of the wires if fluxed and tinned can be soldered directly together and be curvable without coming apart. But the top and bottom solder splices need to be staggered!!


Also when soldering in the cable spacers(?) be mindful of the location of the cable splices. If to close use a heat sink.


The trial section turned out sturdy and quite flexible.
But even with a jig it’s extremly time consuming!
I’ll post up cost difference next.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

When you get all that done, you need to pop up round here and do mine for me,

[2railjon]

LOL, Rufus!! Depends on how much beer you have on hand!!!

OK, cost estimates! My loop is 40 feet.
Model Memories Type 2-0 pre-made would require 4 packs for a total of $160.


Tichy Train Group PB Wire (requires top and bottom cables and complete soldering on my part: $54.


Decisions, decisions.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

LOL, Rufus!! Depends on how much beer you have on hand!!!

That depends. Most on hand is Bourbon Co from several years ago and runs around 14% alcohol and is not that swill you see advertised on TV.

I suspect that you have more track to do than on my layout,

[E7]

Here is a link to John Sethian's thread regarding his latest work on Catenary over on OGR. At the top of that thread is a link to another earlier thread with John's first exploits catenary wise.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/how ... n-progress

Rich

[E7]

Well, in for a penny in for a pound! I thought I’d experiment soldering up my own support and power line as opposed to buying sections already made up. So here is my soldering jig I made up.

There is a Gent in Michigan (see OST issue #10) who used wood dowels for his poles and inverted "N" scale rail for his wire. When I first started looking at the article what impressed me was the smooth curves of his wiring, which turned out to be the rail. It would no doubt offend the purist, but it worked and doesn't really look all that bad! Looking from overhead, the "wire" matched the curvature of the track pretty precisely.

Rich