Rather like your overhead, Wood Poles existed the last Time I visited Switzerland around 6 or so Years ago at of all places Zweissemen. Clearly there is presidence for your use of Wood for reasons of Cost. It is remarkably tricky to get Poles working, you appear to have managed the trick with evidence on your superb Vid. Brill stuff.
I strung up the Wire and Poles on the Ruschbahn. Not a small project with an ever criticle Ruschfuhrer watching my every move! But it was done and worked well. Steel Rods hammered into paving Flags after Groves had been Turned to Wrap Cross Wires. Small Section Nickel Silver Wire for the Cross Wires and Pan Wires. Smaller Copper Wire for the Droppers with Meccanno Bolts as Sliders for the Overhead to move. Painted Beads for Isolators. Tension was kept by Invisible Fence Wire Tensioners (behind the Mountains or Buildings indoors). I wanted to use Tins with Weights but this was rejected. I still think that this would have worked better due to the Wires being in Full Sun all day and getting some flexibility with the non moving Tensioners.
Sadly this has all been demolished now. But a reminder of happier days:
The fact that the Wire in places is pretty well invisible shows the attempt to create an image that replicate the Prototype as close as possible.
Yes it was a paint at times for Track Cleaning and Access, but we managed. I was probably a bit more flexible in the Joints then!
JonD
Thanks Jon! That looks stunning, admittedly it was the LGB coupling that first gave it away. I can appreciate the amount of work involved in getting that going. Creative use of materials too!
Wood poles are still common on the Melbourne tram network, though slowly being replaced by steel. Heavy rail electrification in Australia and New Zealand used wood poles too, but by now only Wellington still has a significant number.
The trolley poles are actually surprisingly forgiving of rough overhead, as long as it doesn't have sharp kinks in it. They tolerate the loose untensioned wire well. Getting the pole to take the right direction at junctions can be a bit fiddly, but they seem to work reliably once it is set up.
I tried to keep all the overhead wire poles on the same side as much as possible for easy access. A tramway with trolley poles is always going to be a fairly hands on type operation, since you have to manually swing the poles around to reverse direction. So far I only have two trams with trolley poles, but all the overhead is designed to be pantograph compatible as well.
we would not even have to worry about Catenery. Though the Sound Chip might be a bit of a Chalenge. Definately a need for Massoth to Sample one on the HSB.
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