Good evening all:
Bruce, very nice work and excellent instructions. I'd also be curious how you go about powering your system (or plan to) and which motors you have.
Before I post the following, I wanted to say that it is not my intent diminish anyone's work with my own. Seeing Bruce's system excited me enough to want to share a piece of my own, and add that there is another nutcase O modeler in the world that loves designing and building working catenary systems.
I'd like to humbly submit that using copper wire can work, and can be quite enjoyable if you're into such challenges. I am building a small system where the wire structure and catenary supports are modeled after Amtrak's Euro style above New Haven. The cat poles and support structure uses common hardware and are not really 'modeled'. The point is to create a realistic and heavy duty system to run electrics and perform some operations.
I use brass rod from Lowe's for the cat supports, and 18g copper wire for the messenger and trolley wire. The wire is under fairly high tension, which is adjustable and secured at various 'pull-off points' around the system. DCS controls the system through a custom switch-board. There are 5 isolated overhead circuits. A stripped Atlas AEM7 is the test vehicle, (see LEDs on the roof). AEM7s, MUs and a TRAXX F140 are the intended users
Bruce -- Thanks for sharing your work and ideas. Its really fun to see different designs and follow what others are doing. I'm eager to see how your system progresses.
--NMM
