Not wishing to high-jack the excellent thread on Building Tramway Catenary, I decided to answer ione of the posts by these pictures showing some details of how the overhead was built on the Ruschbahn. This was built mostly by myself, though it has to be stated to very high expectations by the owner of the line!
Firstly we needed to get some decent size wire, owner got this. Cant state the gauge but you can see that it is smaller than N Gauge rail. We tried this rail and many others, none cut the mustard in terms of fineness or strength. This was particularly so with the n gauge rail which did not support the pan well enough. We then hit on the concept of Tensioning The Wire like they do on the real thing. For tghis we use Fencing tensioners in hidden places. This is OK for long runs of wire, but for short runs we use the Squires Mini Turnbuckles (Section 26 in the Cat Fittings etc) these are good in Open Situations and can be used so that more than 1 is in a piece of wire. In some situations you can even resort to a pan passing over them.
The real secret is the Buttons, these are fabricated from a Meccano type Skrew as seen below:-
On the above picture, the Contact Wire is going from Left To Right on the Test set Up. The Cross Wire is the other thinner one. The Contact Wire for Main Line applications is doubled and joined to give that typical Rising and Lowering of the second wire with a thiner wire soldered between the two. We do not like soldering that much and try to ensure that any soldered joints do not take tension. The buttons allow both the top wire and lower wire to move so that expabnsion is allowed.
The buttons thread onto the cross wires that are suspended from Steel Rod that had been scored on the top and had a small grove cut on the lathe so that cross wires can be hung. On the viaduct we built Double Masts as seen below:-
Some of the effect of the overhead can be seen in the following pictures:-
Note how insignificant the overhead looks in relation to its surroundings. Just the effect that the Ruschfuhrer was looking for.
Finally you must have a Work Train to deal with the delivery of all the poles etc.
This is of necessity a shortened account as I am not near the Ruschbahn at the moment to give fuller details.
Firstly we needed to get some decent size wire, owner got this. Cant state the gauge but you can see that it is smaller than N Gauge rail. We tried this rail and many others, none cut the mustard in terms of fineness or strength. This was particularly so with the n gauge rail which did not support the pan well enough. We then hit on the concept of Tensioning The Wire like they do on the real thing. For tghis we use Fencing tensioners in hidden places. This is OK for long runs of wire, but for short runs we use the Squires Mini Turnbuckles (Section 26 in the Cat Fittings etc) these are good in Open Situations and can be used so that more than 1 is in a piece of wire. In some situations you can even resort to a pan passing over them.
The real secret is the Buttons, these are fabricated from a Meccano type Skrew as seen below:-
On the above picture, the Contact Wire is going from Left To Right on the Test set Up. The Cross Wire is the other thinner one. The Contact Wire for Main Line applications is doubled and joined to give that typical Rising and Lowering of the second wire with a thiner wire soldered between the two. We do not like soldering that much and try to ensure that any soldered joints do not take tension. The buttons allow both the top wire and lower wire to move so that expabnsion is allowed.
The buttons thread onto the cross wires that are suspended from Steel Rod that had been scored on the top and had a small grove cut on the lathe so that cross wires can be hung. On the viaduct we built Double Masts as seen below:-
Some of the effect of the overhead can be seen in the following pictures:-
Note how insignificant the overhead looks in relation to its surroundings. Just the effect that the Ruschfuhrer was looking for.
Finally you must have a Work Train to deal with the delivery of all the poles etc.
This is of necessity a shortened account as I am not near the Ruschbahn at the moment to give fuller details.
