GWR Five-wire fencing

[george stein]

About to start on a couple yards (OO scale) of GWR five-wire right-of-way fencing and realized I had no idea what kind of wire was used.  Copper (greenish tint), steel (hints of rust), coated wire (black), etc.  So,...what color fishing line am I looking for?  Thanks.

 

George

North Carolina

[28XX]

Galvanised steel. Grey with some dark rust sections where the galv. has worn or corroded off.

[george stein]

Thank you.  So many of these common knowledge facts are a great mystery to us living in the USA.

 

George

North Carolina

[Crichel Down]

In 4mm scale, the fence wire would be very thin.

 

Some modellers (me included) only install the fence posts (5" x 5" - old sleepers cut in half, with a pointed top to throw off rainwater, set at roughly 6 foot intervals), and omit the wires altogether.

 

It's simply a question of personal preference whether you do this, or whether you use overscale wire (filament), which is extremely fiddly to fix.

 

In answer to the original question - yes, galvanised steel wire, which would go a dark rust colour within a year or two.  The wires were always stapled to the outside of the fence posts (i.e. facing away from the railway), except where cast concrete fence posts came into use later.  In the latter case, the wires went through holes cast in the concrete posts.

 

The wires were not evenly spaced up the post; those nearer the ground were closer together.

[The Great Bear]

Rather than fishing line try EZLine, which is elastic and makes installing wires a lot easier. It is black. Depending on the alignment of the fence including up and down I wrapped the line around every fifth or so post secured by supergl he (slow zap). I omitted the lower wires. Four I think was enough. The grass disguised mostly lack of lower ones.

 

Good luck with it

 

Jon

Rather than fishing line try EZLine, which is elastic and makes installing wires a lot easier. It is black. Depending on the alignment of the fence including up and down I wrapped the line around every fifth or so post secured by supergl he (slow zap). I omitted the lower wires. Four I think was enough. The grass disguised mostly lack of lower ones.

 

Good luck with it

 

Jon

[Tim V]

The wire is around 1/8", or 0.07mm in 7mm. Very thin. Any wire would be overscale, or too fragile.