Utility Lines

It does work nicely! I like it because you can bump it without wrecking anything. The only drawback is tension. Real utility lines droop. It's physics and its the catenary curve. There's no way that I know to uniformly get 1:48 lines to droop. The inherent twist in thread or wire always causes the lines to defy gravity. As severe as it is for telephone lines, it even worse when trying to duplicate hi-tension lines which has droop measure in feet. I just ordered a couple spools of E-Z Line in black and Patina Green in the .5MM O'scale size. I've used it very successfully in rigging my USS Missouri.

For model ship rigging it is superb.

I've found polyester thread (unbreakable cotton), with a tiny amount of Vaseline rubbed into it, will droop OK.

Cheers

Dave looks great!

Yep...looks great!!  Dave...you are doing a great job on that layout...WOW!!

Alan

Nice work as usual. I like what I see in the background of the bottom photo!

That is certainly a nice looking job Dave!!

Looks great Dave, reminds me of a instance when it tried doing this on one of my earlier layouts.

I had the poles so I thought, planted  securely.

As it started stringing the line between the poles I kept pulling the poles out or had them leaning.

After muttering a few choice words my wife came over and asked what was wrong.

I explained to her what I was trying to do.

She said let me try, 10 minutes later she had more line strung,the poles were standing straight, and had more done in those 10 minutes than I did in the past hour. 

Dave, I bought some of the that EZ line last year myself but mine is still on the spool!! Yours looks great, your layout has really changed since my last visit. I need to plan a visit soon. Things should slow down for me soon with winter coming. Great work as usual.

sweet!

look great!

Lines really make a scene look terrific!!

Andre.

Thanks everybody!

Great job Dave!!

Sam, lines look real good and yes, I do see BIG power lines that sag. but most around here are small poles and are taught. 

I used to live in Wisconsin. I remember noticing low-tension wires that sagged noticeably in the summer but were taut as guitar strings in the winter when it was 20 below.

Dave,

Nice work , these look great.

I really admire your work.

Dave I have high tension towers on my layout and thought for several months what to use for the lines.  Believe it or not I was in a tackle store picking up some fish hooks for a fishing outing and bang, my quest for wires for my high tension wires was over.  The answer is the old fashion black braided fishing line.  At least on high tension wires it looks fantastic and has a perfect droop between towers.  Have had many compliments on the wires as to looking real.  Good luck and remember half the fun is trying something new on the layout.  Jack

Looks good Dave, we are in the same prosses of puting poles up too. 

I was gearing up to make a bunch of poles, when I realized that the area I'm modeling didn't have electrical lines for the most part until well after WW2. Extremely rural areas of the Deep South didn't have electricity except in towns or along main roads, until the Rural Electrification Act was passed. Had WW2 not come along, most places would have electric lights by the mid 40s but instead, some places didn't have power lines reaching them until the late 40s.

So, I'll have power lines to a couple of businesses on the layout and that'll be it.

Is EZ line still being made, if so, were can it be purchased? 

Thanks for a response in advance.

Berkshire Junction. Here's their web address.

http://www.berkshirejunction.com

They don't have very sophisticated payment processes. I just bought stuff from them.