Thinking About Overhead ~ Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Actually I've been thinking about it for a long time. But now I'm thinking about actually doing it (running out of excuses--I mean things I have to do first)!

I've been reading up on the subject in the Kalmbach Traction Handbook and the NCat Book, and getting some good advice from the NScaleTraction group.

One thing that's going to make this layout interesting to hang cat for is the sharp turns it has over street trackage. There's going to be no getting around the need for span wires, pull-offs, backbones, hangers, etc.

Here's a design I came up with for one corner (on my work laptop, sitting in the back of a dull meeting--is there another kind?).



One compromise I'm willing to make is that the first installation of overhead will be for pantographs only. Or perhaps I can make the basic track loop a continuous wire, so that pole-equipped cars can run around it, but I'm going to put off trying to take on trolley frogs for later.

Or I could cheat and equip my "pole" cars with bows, like the Portland Streetcar has done with their vintage cars.