Keeping on the straight and narrow

Where we live, trains are run on electric power which comes from a third rail on the ground – the good old Southern Electric Railway, as it used to be in my youth. But for most people, electric trains means overhead wires. That's what makes catenary on a model layout so obvious. Yet as I discovered, even getting electricity to run smoothly around metal track is hard enough – adding in the complexity of suspending wires above the track makes life much more difficult. My guess is, that is why Hornby dropped catenary, and now only produces models with non-functioning pantographs (the roof top power collectors).
  
It wasn’t always like that. Tri-ang had two attempts at working catenary. Nowadays, Marklin produces a working catenary set, and I've seen some ads suggesting Dapol might have something as well. I haven't tried either. But when I was a kid, I had a set of the second generation of the tri-ang catenary system. After all I had a train which needed it – yes as far as I was concerned – it was needed. And so I am the proud owner of an R416 15” catenary set dating from the mid 1960’s. But could I find it? Of course not. And I also remembered just what a pain it had been trying to get it to work properly when I was a kid. Back in those days, we didn’t have space to have a permanent layout – so every time I set up the trains, it meant relaying the track, and re-installing the catenary.


My main memory about it was the problems I had in trying to get the catenary to run around curves. As a kid I was bending the wires to follow the curve. But the more I researched it now, the more I became convinced that that had been the problem when I was a kid.
Real wires on real railways do not turn bends in mid-air. If they curve its because the weight in the middle between two support posts causes a downward curve. Between each support post they run straight. This is how the Marklin system works, where they recommend a support every 22.5 degrees of turn.


Well I had the engine with the pantographs. I had my son ask “what are they for?” whilst my daughter watched me closely for the answer. But no catenary to show them. Ebay to the rescue. I managed to buy another R416 set of Tri-ang catenary. Time then passed – work has this habit of getting in the way of a smooth running model train set! And before I could find the time to set up the new set, my son discovered my original set, hidden away in some boxes. Now we've got two sets of 15 feet each – and we'll have to find some place to test them! (see the video in the last post)

Live wire running!

Electric Overhead

So our test run worked - finally. In the shot is our Tri-ang R257, capable of running powered from the track or from catenary - the posh name for overhead wires!


Its a great model - but frankly a bit unlikely. One of my discoveries in coming back to train sets is the great divide - between modellers who strive for exact replication of real life, as against most of the kids I know (old pretend kids as well as real kids) for whom the toy's the thing. This model was based on an Australian diesel engine, but Tri-ang added the "pantographs" - the roof top collectors - to make it work with overhead power supplies. 


A couple of weeks ago we took this model to a local train fair. I had finally given up trying to get it to run. There we met Dr John the Train Doctor - very clever at fixing model trains. A friend of his told me that this model was altered by Tri-ang to try and break into the American market, where overhead power was considered essential. He said the Americans didn't take to this model and surplus stock was brought back to the UK. Meanwhile Dr John was checking out the inner workings of the model. The problem, it turned out, was simple - inside the motor there is a wire spring, one side of which is sheathed. The sheath prevents a short circuit - but I hadn't spotted that the sheath had worked itself back so the spring was shorting out the  two sides of the motor. Easily fixed - if you know how. (I plan to come back to the inner workings of the R257 in another posting).


But our problems didn't just end with the train itself. We had enormous problems with setting up the catenary. The wires have to sit above the centre line of the track. That's easy when the track is straight, but on a curve you have to bend the wire by hand to match the radius of the curve. As the train moves around a bend, the pantographs move away from the centre line. If the wire is too close to one side or the other, the pantographs slip past the wire and then - CRASH - the pantographs hit the next catenary mast. I seem to have spent days bending and re-bending the wires to get the curve just right. And now - it works - and its a marvel!


The Tri-ang R257, with "Tri-ang Railway" markings is said to be very rare these days. Catenary sets from Tri-ang are also a bit difficult to track down - ebay had a couple in the last three or four days, but both were incomplete sets. I have always loved this train - and there is something special about seeing it powered from above. My son and daughter have loved working with me to get the whole setup running - and there is something special about that as well!

It works! Well almost...

It's sort of natural to kick off a new blog with  - why? My why is probably fairly commonplace. We bought my son a train set when he was younger - too young probably. And one oval of track obviously (yes, obviously ) isn't enough. So I wondered if the old set I used to have was still in the loft? It was and that started me on a long road of discovery. You see my 40+ year old toy trains worked - almost. All sorts of complications awaited me - from track geometry to mending old motors. And I couldn't have done it without lots of help, often found on the interweb. And yet as I have gone along there are things I have found difficult to find out about, some things I have discovered (probably wasn't looking in the right place), and it just feels right to try and give something back - to see if my travels on a train set might help other dads (and mums - if you are out there...) (and grandads/grandmums/uncles/aunties/carers of all descriptions and Uncle Tom Cobley - although he favoured horses didn't he?).

My first set was by Playcraft. I then moved onto Tri-ang. I have a very nice French diesel loco from Jouef. And now my son has found modern Hornby. But I am getting ahead of myself. I have to tell you about our test layout with overhead supply using catenary - before its ousted from the dinner table to make way for a Burns night supper at the weekend. All I have to do first is see how I can get some pictures onto Blogger. Come back soon and see if I manage it!