Hi,

How do you rig up catenary when you have a pair of curved turnouts linking R1 and R2 on a curve? It seems to me that there's not enough room for masts on the middle bit.

I've looked in the catalogue and it shows how to do a simple curved turnout, but not a pair. I could buy the catenary handbook, but then I'd have to wait a couple of weeks for the answer to this question.

Anyone help?

Thanks,

Ray

Hi Ray,
As I haven't yet rigged up my catenary (I have all the bits ready) I don't know the answer to your question, and may end up with a similar problem. Although my track section for catenary is mostly R4 and R5, with some curved points.
regards
Kimball

David, thanks. I'm thinking that it can be done as you say, but using one (or two) of these to link up the middle bit.



Would that work?

Ray

Thanks, Mike. The info on the 74106 mast says that the outer arm is adjustable to 117.5mm. Presumably that means that the arm slides in and out along the cross bar.

I had originally been thinking on the same lines as your suggestion, using a three track cross span, but I am thinking now that the spacing of the masts might end up too far apart, leaving the masts very far from the edges of the track. It should still work though.

I can see myself ordering the catenary handbook!

Ray

I was looking through the instructions for the 70000 Catenary Set and it gives a list of which numbers are used to set up catenary for one of the basic start sets with passing loop (ie 29859).

There is a diagram that shows the set-up for two parallel ovals with a curved switch flyover, but it does not list the parts required.
The masts would mount at the start of the switch, two wires would go from there, one on the inner and one on the outer track. A mast would be situated on the section of track between the two curved switches, and this would be connected to the mast at the end of the opposing switch. Pretty simple, in fact. On the outer and innermost tracks, you would simply install masts where required, also connected to the masts at the end of the switch tracks.
If you intended to operate two isolated circuits in order to have independent analog control of each track, you would have to incorporate sn isolated section between the two tracks.

Regards

Mike C

The 7000 series wires are of sufficiently heavy gauge metal to bridge the gap when secured with the 7004 nuts, bolts and washers. I have two sets of curved ponts rigged up in this way and they work fine, with masts at the convergence of the tracks on the points.

Hi,
I had the same problem but I finally managed to work it out. you need a combination of 2 elements, because the Märklin 74106 won't do : the rail segments are too close together. a 74131 is required : it is versatile enough.

I put a picture to show how I made on my layout :

[img][/img]

Glad if I could help you, Ray (actually, it took me a lot of time to find this combination, which is strange because the R1/R2 interconnexion is pictured is all basic Märklin documentation but never with a catenary...).
As you can see, I had to use 2 masts (bottom of picture), but I guess a more elegant design could be achieved by using a Viessmann reference 4161 (it is a 3-track version of the Märklin 74106 concept) but the product is currently flagged as non available on the Viessmann web site.
An alternative is to use a second 74131 (I also tried this solution : works, a little bit trickier to tune because the segments are VERY close). The look is better because it is more homogeneous to use identical masts on a section.
Whatever you choose to do, remember that you will need to build specific segments, because standard ones won't suffice [:I]

Hi,

you can have an idea of what it looks like "live", I made a very short video.