Hi,

I am intrigued to hear how overhead pickup affects running performance of Z Scale models?




Just the same as from the track, the 'juicy' has got to get back to the - via the wheels. I did find less problems with the catenary pick up of the + as the wheels were not involved to connect. and dust settles down and not up. Power is just the same further away from a feeder, lesser voltage and slowing. It's fiddly to set up, but the amount of trains with catenary these days I had to have a go at it. It was an interesting project, Taken it all down now and its on Ebay as I type. Vast Bundle. If you do decide to take it on, The marklin instructions from about 2006 are out to download, I read it that they were released by Marklin 0296 so no copy right issues. A quick tip to get good curves put a rolling pin 6" away from the edge of a table, put the catenary wire on it, put the heel of your hand on that and roll toward you, left or right curves starting where you put your hand.
Cheers

Chas