Catenary System- Does Anybody Make one

Robert Coniglio posted:

I was wondering if there are any manufacturers who make a complete catenary system

 

Bob C.

Search MTH.

Jack had your the answer.  The MTH system is very basic, but it is the only O gauge one currently available.  You can also power your electrics through the MTH system if you want.

Since I run 3 rail, having a catenary capable of power is a low priority for me.  I would like one that is more realistic looking than MTH's, but it doesn't have to be scale detailed.  I keep hoping Menards will come up with something that looks good and not be too expensive.

I use a combination of HO Marklin Wire-frames for the wire and O-gauge Pittman poles for the posts; an idea for an O-gauge catenary system I saw in one of the magazines. 

Alan of "leaving tracks" aka the "ADMan" developed a unique system that he uses on his layout. Otherwise, you can use MTH's system that is rather large.

MTH makes a very nice one.  I have just completed installation of mine.  It's not terribly expensive and goes together well.  

In the June/July 2013 issue of OGR Don McCuaig (scalerail) had an excellent article on how to make catenary using the Marklin HO components Alanrail mentioned above. If I wanted overhead wire on my layout I'd go with Don's method. 

I have tried several approaches to catenary over the years and found that you can't beat the MTH system for ease of setup and reliability.  The parts are heavy duty and well made.  It is not perfect but it goes up quickly, is easily re-configured and works well.

Rolland

This is a shot of my system that Jerry mentioned. It works well powering the electrics. It's easy to build and you can knock out a lot of poles in a evening. Check out the June/July 2013 issue of OGR. Don

Dave Hike of Hike Layouts, a Forum sponsor, makes a prototypical Great Northern catenary system.

Dan, good job.  I made my own poles with Marklin wire.  I am running a bit over 300 feet.  It has been in full operation for 15 years.

 

Robert Coniglio posted:

I was wondering if there are any manufacturers who make a complete catenary system

 

Bob C.

Modelmemories.com in o scale and ho ,  cantenary systems , tell tales , high power transiton poles         , there o scale wire for the pantagrafs  to run on premade 4 /36" pieces for $40 . techman 

techman posted:

Robert Coniglio posted:

I was wondering if there are any manufacturers who make a complete catenary system

 

Bob C.

Modelmemories.com in o scale and ho ,  cantenary systems , tell tales , high power transiton poles         , there o scale wire for the pantagrafs  to run on premade 4 /36" pieces for $40 . techman 

they are listed on the o'gauge scenery source list  techman

Dan Padova posted:

MTH makes a very nice one.  I have just completed installation of mine.  It's not terribly expensive and goes together well.  

Dan, do you have problems with the overhead wire in the MTH system flexing or twisting, etc? I have the MTH system but haven't set it up it. The overhead wire seemed awful flimsy.

Steve

Couple of negatives about the MTH system. You need to bend the overhead wire on curves, This is not how the prototype works and to me it looks toylike. I'm lucky with building the Milwaukee Road. Their system was simple and easy to build. Many short lines and a few class one railroads used the system. As a model it is amazingly strong. Dowels are drilled into the wood base. Also the Marklin wire  comes in three lengths. The shortest is adjustable. MTH is a good system but not cheap. Wood dowels, brass rod and Marklin wire is all you need. Don

I have studied your catenary for a long time Don.  It spells Milwaukee all the way.  It is very well done.  My issue was a bit different as on my side of this great country catenary supports are steel and some places I beam.  I being a toy train guy, wanted something that looked like Lionel could have made it in 1954.  I feel I hit it with the 153 block signal caps on top.   It is one hundred percent operational and I do not have any rollers under the locomotive

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

I have studied your catenary for a long time Don.  It spells Milwaukee all the way.  It is very well done.  My issue was a bit different as on my side of this great country catenary supports are steel and some places I beam.  I being a toy train guy, wanted something that looked like Lionel could have made it in 1954.  I feel I hit it with the 153 block signal caps on top.   It is one hundred percent operational and I do not have any rollers under the locomotive

1. Marty, Mickey is not setting a very good example for the little ones. 

Ed, I had my Grandchildren at Disney a while ago and saw a pencil display with all the characters glued to the pencils.  A light bulb went off and I purchased several.  The kids love to spot them and I.D. them.  A bit of fun.

One of the projects when I retire is to build my on poles and photo etch my own Cat wire, I have a bunch Of MTH wire and poles to use in the mean time. I would stay with MTH system however it is very limited, it is only good for one line, I need three across and poles to handle it. It will be PRR system wire.

Try pricing 900 linear feet of MTH catenary!

RideTheRails posted:

Dan Padova posted:

MTH makes a very nice one.  I have just completed installation of mine.  It's not terribly expensive and goes together well.  

Dan, do you have problems with the overhead wire in the MTH system flexing or twisting, etc? I have the MTH system but haven't set it up it. The overhead wire seemed awful flimsy.

Steve

If you don't place the contact wire too low, there is no flexing.  As I was setting the height of the wire, I used the E-33 you see in my photos as a template.  At first, I had the wire lower because I wanted to run my GG1 under wire also.  However, the GG1 is not as tall as the E-33, so the Pantograph on the E-33 was pushing too hard on the wire.  I didn't see any flexing even then on the straight runs.  I hadn't installed the curved wire at that point.  

I decided that since this is a small switching layout, that I would only run the E-33.   If I ever build a larger layout in the garage attic, I will certainly have the GG1 in mind when building the catenary.  

Back in the eighties I had a layout with scratch-built catenary.  At that time I used 1/16" brass rod for the contact wire.  The pantograph on the E-33 I had at the time glided smoothly on the brass, so I was able to lower the wire to accommodate the GG1.  It seems the MTH contact wire isn't quite as smooth as the brass wire, so when I had the present contact wire lower, the Pantograph was dragging more.  I attached a piece of LGB track cleaning eraser to the top of the pantograph and let the locomotive run around the circuit a few times.  It smoothed out the bottom the contact wire enough that I could feel the difference.  

The MTH wire is stamped, so in the stamping process, there is always some burr on one side.  That burr can translate downward to the running surface of the wire.

I like MTH's system.  I thought of scratch-building one this time, but had the funds available so I opted for the MTH catenary.   

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

Dan, good job.  I made my own poles with Marklin wire.  I am running a bit over 300 feet.  It has been in full operation for 15 years.

 

That's a nice layout you have there Marty.  Nice work on the catenary support masts.  Also I commend you on a fully operational catenary, taking power from the wire.  I had that ability on my layout in the eighties.  Guests would be amazed that it could be done.  

Marty, love your cat system. It reminds me of the 1948 Lionel showroom layout with the GG1s. The best layout Lionel ever made.  Somehow I think Lionel had something like your overhead wire system in mind for the future. Same as a Irvington type observation car. Like I said, I am  lucky  to model the Milwaukee Road because it's so easy to build their wire system. This shot is of an "Eastern Railroad" can't think of the name of it off the top of my head, but I guess the Milwaukee rebuilt it for that railroad. It's being moved across the electric section back to the East.

Marty, I think the two of us are the ambassadors for overhead wire. Thanks.

Don

Don, the 1948 layout was for looks.  I was told they did not power it.  Thank you for your comments.

 

Marty

John Pignatelli JR. posted:

One of the projects when I retire is to build my on poles and photo etch my own Cat wire, I have a bunch Of MTH wire and poles to use in the mean time. I would stay with MTH system however it is very limited, it is only good for one line, I need three across and poles to handle it. It will be PRR system wire.

Yes, the system can get pricey if you want a more elaborate layout.  I may be possible to join the mast arms together to form a longer beam.  But then you still have the cost of all the additional masts.  It's one of those things best purchased over a few years.  It makes it seem less costly that way.  Well, at least in my mind.....LOL

I hope to install this on my future layout. http://www.jcstudiosinc.com/O-Gauge-Catenary

Are they 20” apart?

Whatever happened to the old AOL guy who use to make/sell O catenary and bridges at York? I think he went by the name T-Rex, but can’t remember his company name. I want to say it was very crude and not near scale, but I don’t know how expensive it was or wasn’t. 

Robert nothing comes up on that website. If you guys only knew how easy and inexpensive it is to built your own. Just some dowels, brass rod and used Marklin wire. The "How to build the my system" is in June/July 2013 issue of OGR. Look to the digital library for the issue. Don

Sam Jumper posted:

Whatever happened to the old AOL guy who use to make/sell O catenary and bridges at York? I think he went by the name T-Rex, but can’t remember his company name. I want to say it was very crude and not near scale, but I don’t know how expensive it was or wasn’t. 

His name was Pat Fusco and he passed away several years ago.

Its a shame that Lionel never developed a set up for their GG1 and Rectifier engines that was nearly plug and play like the Marklin set up for HO scale.  They made the engines able to collect power thru the pans, but never offered the stuff to set up the catenary.  I think MTH started to do something like that at one time, not sure it last very long or if much was made.  

The problem with plug and play is switches and cross tracks. It's not really practical for mass producing. You need the overhead wire over the center rail and when you come to a switch, you need to solder an overhead wire the the mainline line wire were the switch is. Ready made overhead can't be made  like that. It really limits the layout. If you can solder you can build my system. It's also very strong as the dowels (poles) are drilled into the table top. I have hundreds of poles on the layout and can't imagine the cost of buying that many ready made poles. Sitting at my work bench I can make thirty or so an evening. Don

LGB made a plug-n-Play catenary system that was very successful.  It was engineered to allow for LGB's R1 curves, which are their tightest radius.  No soldering required.  

Dan, how did they deal with switches? The Marklin wire comes in three sizes one is adjustable but I don't like the way they look. Don

At York this fall I saw a nice one made by custom model railroads - a forum sponsor Listed at the top of the page,trainlayouts.com

 

 

Dan, thanks so much for posting the LBG info. Very nice of you and a interesting system. Don

Sommerfeldt offers a complete and realistic looking catenary system in O scale. It's German and Swiss prototype but very similar to modern catenary systems in the USA.

Sommerfeldt.de

Not scale, but fun-the MTH Catenary is powering one GG1, the other GG1 is powered by the third rail:

https://youtu.be/UYxO_yWlky0

 

Rich883 posted:

At York this fall I saw a nice one made by custom model railroads - a forum sponsor Listed at the top of the page,trainlayouts.com

 

 

http://trainlayouts.com/products/index-catenary.php

RAK posted:

Not scale, but fun-the MTH Catenary is powering one GG1, the other GG1 is powered by the third rail:

https://youtu.be/UYxO_yWlky0

 

Just checked out your video.  Two thumbs up to another live catenary man.  

scale rail posted:

Couple of negatives about the MTH system. You need to bend the overhead wire on curves, This is not how the prototype works and to me it looks toylike. I'm lucky with building the Milwaukee Road. Their system was simple and easy to build. Many short lines and a few class one railroads used the system. As a model it is amazingly strong. Dowels are drilled into the wood base. Also the Marklin wire  comes in three lengths. The shortest is adjustable. MTH is a good system but not cheap. Wood dowels, brass rod and Marklin wire is all you need. Don

What American dealers carry the catenary wire by Marklin?