Joined: 05/07/2020(UTC) Posts: 326 Location: Mississippi, Vancleave
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I have a traction guidebook that states catenary poles should be spaced not less than 90' nor more than 110' apart. That comes out to about 13-1/4" apart in HO scale. I have seen pole spacing on large commercial layouts to way exceed that dimension, what looks like 3 passenger car lengths judging by cab ride videos. Does 110' (13-1/4") sound reasonable? I have 30 sections of cat, 13-1/4" long made right now, but I can easily make some longer ones if justified.
I made up a test track 6' long with the catenary I made and it works perfectly. My catenary wires are very robust and will stand up not like the wires you see on videos where the wires are all bent and falling apart. It may not look prototypical, but scale concessions need to be made when necessary. A contact wire if scaled down would be approximately .0057" diameter: totally unworkable in the model world.
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 1 user liked this useful post by Mr. Ron
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Joined: 10/02/2006(UTC) Posts: 3,997
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I think the prototype poles are 60m apart. So 6000cm / 87 = 68.9cm in HO (about 27")
Poles are closer together in curves and since HO track curves are typically way smaller than the prototype, they will end up closer. |
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 1 user liked this useful post by DaleSchultz
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Joined: 05/07/2020(UTC) Posts: 326 Location: Mississippi, Vancleave
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Originally Posted by: DaleSchultz  I think the prototype poles are 60m apart. So 6000cm / 87 = 68.9cm in HO (about 27")
Poles are closer together in curves and since HO track curves are typically way smaller than the prototype, they will end up closer. I'm constructing some catenary wires 23" long. That is so I can get 2 pieces from a 48" long wire.
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 1 user liked this useful post by Mr. Ron
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Joined: 28/11/2007(UTC) Posts: 8,226 Location: Montreal, QC
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For a straight segment, I would plan on having a mast every 36cm (360mm) 14 3/16 inches. This corresponds to the length of a 27142 and 24188 (C Track) or two sections of 5106 (M Track).
It has the effect of making the straight lengths seem longer than they actually are.
Regards
Mike C
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 1 user liked this useful post by mike c
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Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC) Posts: 14,875 Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
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My Sommerfeldt wires are max. 500mm on straight tracks. Edited by user 20 January 2022 10:53:24(UTC)
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 1 user liked this useful post by river6109
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Joined: 10/02/2006(UTC) Posts: 3,997
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I just measured mine, they are 65cm apart. ~26" on my straight track. I believe this is already closer than they should be, but I would not go to 36 cm. I have seen layouts like that and IMHO they do not make the layout look longer, they make the catenary more obvious. In Germany the usual distance is 60m with a maximum of 80m. Here are mine:  Which reminds me, I need to finish all the vegetation in that area.... |
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 1 user liked this useful post by DaleSchultz
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Joined: 12/08/2006(UTC) Posts: 9,277
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For the straight track i use 400 mm between the mast. For the curve minimum at 700 mm i use about 300 mm between the mast. In narrower curve for example in the tunnel i never use catenary. I use only catenary visible on the layout. I never feed the power to the catenary because i feed power to the tracks instead. |
H0 DCC = Digital Command Control
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 2 users liked this useful post by Goofy
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