[John Webb]

My father and I made the whole of a branch line off our main line OHL-equipped with the original and the Mark2 Triang overhead - the latter was exceedingly easy to fit on, although it was more 'tramway' style than mainline OHLE. But it did get in the way when things went wrong and we never extended it. We also ran the Triang 4-sub EMU but never bothered with a mock thirdrail. (We lived in SE London and these were a very common sight.)

My relatively recent return to railway modelling will not involve either OHLE or third rail, it would be just too fiddly, I feel.

Those who model parts of, say, the Euston line, would have to include both forms of electrification, of course!
There is the precedent of one or two preserved railways who have EMUs but haul them with a diesel or electro-diesel avoiding the need for laying a third-rail.

The Peco system does offer a reasonable alternative both for working and cosmetic 3rd or 4th rail, although the Code 60 rail they offer is standard flat-bottom cross-section rail and not the nearly square conductor rail used in real life.

Perhaps there is a market for 'add-on' flexible plastic third/forth conductor rail with insulators and end-pieces which can be quickly glued in position?

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

QUOTE (PaulRhB @ 22 Aug 2007, 07:13) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>...say the best course for a beginners system would be just masts and either some metal clips or just fishing line to tie the pantographs at a set height.....

....Even the PECO stuff isn't a scale model as it clips around the rail while the real stuff just sits on top of the insulator pots....

That was the beauty of the Triang Mk 2 system overhead system - a moulded plastic clip took the single wire and attached it to the linside mast - as I said in my previous post it was rather 'tramway'. But it worked, was reasonably robust, easy to modify or to remove if you needed to work on the layout.

Regarding the prototype third rail - there is a metal clip on top of the insulator in which the almost square conductor rail sits. I am almost certain that the bottom of the conductor rail is shaped in some way to ensure it cannot move out of the said clip once in place.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

PaulRhB - Thanks for that info - I moved out of 3rd rail territory nearly thirty years ago and only infrequently travelled on it since. So my memories were going back some way.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

Very realistic looking - congratulations.

Do the wires on the supports low down on the wall serve any function to the layout or are they purely decorative?

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

Thanks - just wondered!
John