Hi all,
We've been doing some "wiring" on the NWTL lately and I thought it was time for new post.
Washington State is blessed with an abundance of hydroelectric power, much of which comes from the Bonneville Power Administration's dams on the Columbia River. The only unfortunate aspect is that the dams are east of the Cascade Mountains and most of the power is used on the west side of the range in Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, and the surrounding communities. Just like the railroads, the BPA was forced to cross some of steepest slopes in North America. Since the 1930's when the dams were built on the Columbia, the railroad lines across Stevens Pass (Great Northern), Snoqualmie Pass (Milwaukee Road), and Stampede Pass (Northern Pacific) have been closely paralleled by high tension towers flowing BPA power.
One of the scenes on the NWTL depicts Skykomish Washington, along the GN's route over Stevens Pass. In our representation the viewer is essentially standing in the Skykomish River looking south into the town.
In an effort to help "sell" the location we've added a string of five high tension towers on the opposite side of the viewing aisle. Three of the towers are an MTH set, which has recently been produced for the first time in many years. You can distinguish these towers by the single insulators for each wire. This type of insulator is common on towers that are in a straight line with both adjacent towers. The other two towers are 30+ year old brass models imported by House of Duddy. These towers feature double insulators, which are commonly used where the transmission lines change direction. All the towers were painted flat gray to match oxidized zinc galvanized steel and the insulators were paint with reddish brown high gloss to match brown glazed ceramic insulators.
For transmission wires we chose to use .5mm elastic beading filament, which is very close in O scale to the diameter of 1/0 cable. The filament is readily available at craft stores at very reasonable prices. The elastic filament is far more durable in this application than actual wire or string. When (not if) you snag a line, it will stretch to over six times its relaxed length without breaking. Once we pulled the cables through the insulators and set the slack a dot of CA glue keeps the lines from getting out of adjustment.
All in all, we're pretty pleased with the results.
