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Dapol Catenary


HSTcallum

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hi all!

 

as we are all (hopefully) aware that dapal are producing their own catenary, with single lineside masts to start off with, i am wondering if they will produce gantry cantenary posts (like the ones you see on the WCML)

if anyone has any idea on what they are planning that will be greatly appreciated!

 

thanks cool.gif

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Not heard of anything. It gets more difficult once you get away from the simple single line support as no other design appears in such large numbers. With gantries you have different number and spacing of tracks plus options for heavy or light structure and the twin track cantilever variants (supported one side only). Besides which the Mk3a equipment, which I think is the basis for the Dapol one, nearly always used headspans instead of gantries.

 

N Brass do a range of kits that cover most of these.

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Not heard of anything. It gets more difficult once you get away from the simple single line support as no other design appears in such large numbers. With gantries you have different number and spacing of tracks plus options for heavy or light structure and the twin track cantilever variants (supported one side only). Besides which the Mk3a equipment, which I think is the basis for the Dapol one, nearly always used headspans instead of gantries.

 

N Brass do a range of kits that cover most of these.

 

are n brass easy to construct for a beginner?

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From what I've seen the N Brass catenary looks extremely good. Its a combination of etched brass and lost-wax brass castings, so achieves very good detail. I don't have any yet to comment on how easy it is to build (I will be ordering some when I've worked out a final track plan). It doesn't look too complex though. The guy who makes it demonstrated some to me at Warley this year - certainly the lattice gantries fold very easily and have alignment notches making them easy to solder rigidly.

 

Soldering isn't anywhere near the black art that one people make out. Carrs\C&L Finescale have a very comprehensive guide www.finescale.org.uk/finescale/ds003.pdf . But I think even this goes into more detail than you really have to worry about. Get yourself a ??15 Antec soldering iron from Maplin (about 20w if you're working in N) but avoid the lead-free electrical solder that Maplin sell. Either get some high quality solder and separate flux from C&L, or to make it even easier, use their solder-paint or solder-cream. Just paint it on in small amounts, like glue, then touch on the iron to weld it all solid!

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