New catenary for O scale

Also Marty, the sparks look great at night. Don

OK, even though my new layout will be started a week later. Don

That would be wonderful if MTH would make another run of their catenary system. With their large dealer network, it would benefit everyone with easy accessibility. I would say if Mike is going to make his catenary system again, then he will be producing his electrics. 

If MTH does make it again I'd hope it would be more "scale" than the other one ...

An excellent idea, especially since you are basically starting over with an entirely new layout and will likely have to make at least a few new sections.  The catenary on your previous layout sure looked very good.

You know what I'd like to see from some manufacturer?  Catenary/poles that snap directly on to sectional track.  Not all of us have the space for a proper permanent layout, and that would allow us carpet-central guys the chance to use pantographs, too.

"the sparks look great at night"

did the prototypes spark?  i have seen GG1's (and modern stuff, too) in the NE corridor, but i can't remember any sparking.

Where I live, the entire network is electrified. at night you see a lot of arching, particularly when you go from one power section to the next.

Here it is! MTH re-realease the Realtrax Catenary system, you can see it on the RTR 2012 Catalog.

but but but... 150$ the 8 pieces catenary system!!!! if it's a joke, it's a bad one!

It's more than reasonable...dunno what you expect to pay for...???

Probably street price will be lower.

Well don't look at the Sommerfeldt price in case...avg price for 1 mast is $40 and then ad the price of the wiring $10 for about 3.5 ft

Wow.  Almost $1900 for 100 poles ...

That makes one think about building a less-expensive option ... somehow ..

Below are five photos of the catenary I described in my earlier post.  They should give you an idea of what I'm doing with the MTH wires and posts.  I'm not posting these to show off my layout, which is obviously a work in progress with a very long way to go.

These just show how the wires are coming along.

@ Bill Phillips....terrific looking layout...and the mod you did to the mth catenary post do enhance greatly the look...a great way to run some GG1 or other electric engine

Bill...your mod looks great!  Many folks have mentioned in previous posts that the MTH system looked clunky....  I had stepped out on a limb by responding that the width dimension of the poles was a little large but by painting them black or a dark gray, this could visually narrow their width.  Even painting the wire a darker color improves its overall look.  The height is fine for the very reason you said in your post above, the Pennsy poles were quiet tall.  I had considered taking the bases off and mounting the poles into the Quiet Brace surface on my layout...

Anyway, your modification to the hangers looks fantastic and I am going to do the same after seeing yours so thanks so much for posting these pictures.  If you have the time, I sure would appreciate close ups of the details of how you did this.  I will be starting on my catenary in the next few weeks so this is very timely!!

Alan

Thanks, guys.  Unfortunately, I won't be home to make close-up photos until mid-March.  If you still want them then, I can post some--or e-mail them to you directly.  Meanwhile, I'll go through the pix I have with me to see if any of them are good close-ups.

Bill, really nice work on the catenary.  I think the MTH system isn't bad at all.  What is the distance between the poles?

Thanks for the info Bill!  I appreciate it.

Hi everybody 

Im wippens son jake and we are huge fans of model railroading. i want to buy my dad a GG 1 for christmas. i have MTH DCS and I'm looking for recommendations that are suitable for beginners.

Thanks Jake

Bill....just following up on some closeups on how you did your modifications.  Can you please posts some photos so that others can see your fine work??

Thanks,

Alan

Jake, if you are looking for a scale piece, and you are happy to run conventional, Williams scale size GG1's are on scale for around $180. This is the O gauge bargain of the year if you like electrics. They are normally over $250. These are great runners and look very nice. If you want to upgrade to PS3, it's still a very inexpensive loco.

I have 7 WBB GG1's and love them.

In answer to the original poster, recently I got a price for the Sommerfeldt poles, and I was quoted about $70 a piece. This was here in Australia, and was retail price, so I'm very disappointed. I certainly can't afford that sort of money. Even if it's $20 cheaper in the US it's going to be too much.

Wow.  Way beyond my budget.

I'll wait for the article by Scale Rail Don on how to do it without breaking the bank.  His Milwaukee cat is exactly what we need to put on the CL&W "Mountain Division".

Kerrigan, Thanks for kicking my butt. I will start in the morning. Please watch. This my last film of my layout. I was saying good by to my favorite layout that gave me many hours of pleasure.  http://youtu.be/liGxckhiLek   Don

$70.- seem slightly high...with shipping..??

So far the price are from about 24.- euro to 37.- (about $30.- to $45.-) depending on the mast.

I know still on the expensive side..can quickly add up (with wiring and other) to a few 100 dollars per scale mile.

Again we suffer from a very tiny niche market with probably very small production run.

The target market is probably people how run Fulgurex/ Hermann engine, with a matching consist were cost can be $15000.- and up..so a few 1000 dolars for catenary is not a "big deal".

Guys...I am only bringing this thread back to life because there has been some interest lately in catenary AND this was a good thread.  Unfortunately, Bill Phillips who posted some great pictures and ideas while he was building his layout, passed away a little more than a year ago ( January 3, 2013 ) so he didn't get to finish his project.  His last post was in November of 2012 in a short "wire for catenary" thread.  His modifications of the MTH system were really nice so I thought those of you that might be interested would enjoy seeing them...

Alan

Good idea Alan. Don

Hi guys,

We have finally started installing our new Milwaukee prototype catenary on the NWTL and another layout in Seattle.  Here's a short video that we did showing a short section of the catenary with a Little Joe.

For anyone who is interested you can contact me off the forum.  We will be bringing the catenary system to market in kit form in the near future.

Hi Dave,

That catenary looks great.  Are you drawing power from it?  Or, will you be able to later when it is finished and will the kits be able to be used as the power source?

Chris

Dave, can you post more photos of the catenary?  The video shows too little.

Dave:  this whole concept is rather exciting.  I look forward to seeing it and probably adding to my "McQuaig ssystem" catenary.  Will you be showing it at York this April?  If so please let us know where your booth will be.

Paul Fischer

Very nice video Dave.....can't wait to see  more!!

Alan

Remember the original post from two years ago [ well, less two days ] regarding Sommerfeldt reintroducing their line of 0 scale catenary ?  They have recently announced that it is to be at dealers by the end of [ this ] March.  Pricing is yet to be determined;  I believe they've said they want to see what their production costs are, so whether the pricing floated two years ago will still apply isn't known.

I must say that from the photos posted that the tower masts look very nice, and are certainly to a higher standard of fidelity to the prototype than the equivalents from 30+ years ago;  this seems to be true across the range, including the catenary itself. 

Best regards,  SZ

I did contact Sommerfeldt last fall & they were planning on having these available by last Christmas. But then again, I have been following this thread for over a year & I am not surprised to hear that have delayed the release again.

But as mentioned in the previous posting they did not finalize the price & so I was not able to send them an order when they asked me to.

Also the only payment they accept is Bank Transfers. No credit card & no PayPal.

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

With all of this discussion about catenary systems, I noticed that my Spell Check indicator would appear every time I used the word: Catenary.  (Even now as I write this.)  So I thought:  "Are we spelling it wrong or something?"  Nope, that's how it's spelled in all articles that I've read.  So I looked it up in a dictionary that I keep here at the desk to settle arguments.  Nope, not in there.  Well then I found that my wife had a special dictionary of unusual words at the TV set and I looked there.  Sure as heck, the word "catenary" was in there. 

Do you know what it means, according to the experts?  "Catenary, n. a curve formed by a cord hanging freely from two fixed points." 

Never thought of it that way, but I guess that our RR definition of the word kind of follows that description.  The catenary curve, (Which we always called the "messenger cable") is the top part of the trolley and is used to support the actual trolley wire between the line poles and the bracket arms so the trolley wire doesn't sag.  On a streetcar or many interurbans, they don't use a messenger cable and support a simple trolley wire only at the location of line poles or brackets.  That system isn't called a catenary, just a trolley wire.  And it tends to have a natural sag to it.

I've come to think that my  "spell check" is pretty dumb!  It doesn't recognize "interurban" either.

Paul Fischer

Found this photo of Milwaukee cat which shows the "tilted pole" approach the Milwuakee used.  This is the system steel gang train with the Butte Helper behind the Joes and another set of boxcabs.

Just got an e-mail from Sommerfeldt with the price list for their O-Scale Catenary components. The images & specifications for the items in the price list are in the catalog, at the link on page 1 of this topic.

Since they only accept bank transfers for payment, any interested buyers in the US, could contact Eurolokshop, an authorized Sommerfeldt dealer.

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Don: Time to get ready to rebuild that exceptional layout that you once had in the lower 48. Remember you don't stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing. I'll enjoy my trains until the day that they lock me in the box!