PECO announces OHLE

[Clive Mortimore]

Would you use the long wires on long runs, then switch to smaller wires for curves, crossovers ? 

Most model railways are confined to short spans, not only because of our under scale curves but because we tend to model station areas with loads of points and have bridges to put our buses on. It is obstacles like these that determine where certain mast have to be placed. once these key mast are in place then the "ordinary" mast can be planted. And don't forget if you have a run of over 14 mast you need a at least a mid point anchor or an overlap.

 

I wonder when Peco will make these.

[Removed a/c]

Thanks Clive,  sounds complicated !!

[Dagworth]

Most model railways are confined to short spans, not only because of our under scale curves but because we tend to model station areas with loads of points and have bridges to put our buses on. It is obstacles like these that determine where certain mast have to be placed. once these key mast are in place then the "ordinary" mast can be planted. And don't forget if you have a run of over 14 mast you need a at least a mid point anchor or an overlap.

 

Longest spans I've managed to incorporate into Dagworth or Ravensclyffe is 24" (About 2/3 of the real max span)

 

Andi

[roy h]

​​ ​peco now have information on there website

[ClikC]

"Produced in collaboration with German catenary specialists Sommerfeldt, they replicate (in true 4mm scale) a common design of the overhead lineside equipment (OHLE) catenary mast as seen around much of the UK electric railway system. Using robust nickel silver and steel parts these masts will last considerably longer than a fragile plastic mast,"

 

"The best practice for connecting the wires will be to solder them securely to the brackets, resulting in a firm and stable set-up that will allow the pantographs of the locomotive or train to run along the wires."

 

Nice one Peco! These may actually provide a decent starting point for 'detailing', as it were.

 

Really didn't expect that!

 

Regards

 

Matt

Edited April 11, 2016 by ClikC

[banburysaint]

There is a free shows you how guide in this months modeller magazine of the peco system

Edited April 12, 2016 by banburysaint

[LaGrange]

There is a free shows you how guide in this months modeller magazine of the peco system

I was told at Glasgow by Peco that this is the instruction/info manual that comes with the starter set

[Mike at C&M]

We have received our first supplies from Peco, which coincides with the publication of the May "Railway Modeller".

[Dagworth]

Oh dear, please Peco can you produce twin cantilevers and end of wire masts either with or without tensioning gear? Wires cannot just start in mid-air...

 

 

 

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Andi

 

 

 

 

Wot, like this?

 

Edit forgot the isolator.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2016 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

Hey, it's also new territory for Peco and their modellers

 

Besides, those masts aren't available (yet?) so they'd have to make do. Remember, it's a major step there's UK style catenery at all, don't mind not being able to have a fully detailed and complete program of all god-knows-how-many-types-of-masts-there-are right from the start.   Whaddayathink this investment would have cost Peco to have just these offerings made by Sommerfeldt? Easily a half million quid tied up on it.

 

Anyway, the running wires seems to be from the Sommerfeldt Profi series, so it might pay off to have a browse for those in the webshops of certain well-known German box-shifters.

It is like doing locomotive models with no suitable rolling stock or doing plain track with no point work to go with it.

[Dunsignalling]

Why is there no "ignore this topic" button on this thread?

Edited April 13, 2016 by Dunsignalling

[Pete the Elaner]

Why is there no "ignore this topic" button on this thread?

Why should you need a button? Ignoring is a manual process.

[Joseph_Pestell]

It is like doing locomotive models with no suitable rolling stock or doing plain track with no point work to go with it.

Surely no company would ever produce track without turnouts to go with it?

[The Ghost of IKB]

 

 

 so it might pay off to have a browse for those in the webshops of certain well-known German box-shifters.

 

hmmm, i can only think of Schultz und  Schultz Hausmovenundboxenshifterdammerung Gmbh,  is this the one you refer to?

[Titan]

To be fair introducing a catenary system to the UK is full of risk. My strategy would be to produce the minimum required to actually run trains, even if that means compromises like not having twin cantilevers. If the system takes off, then investment in the more expensive but less frequently used items for a more accurate portrayal can be justified. If they jumped in with almost every permutation you can think of from the off it would be an incredibly expensive investment, some items would have very little return even if it goes well, and if it does not then that would be a seriously large amount of money to write off.

 

Introduce a basic system first, and if popular enough the fancy bits can be justified.

[Joseph_Pestell]

To be fair introducing a catenary system to the UK is full of risk. My strategy would be to produce the minimum required to actually run trains, even if that means compromises like not having twin cantilevers. If the system takes off, then investment in the more expensive but less frequently used items for a more accurate portrayal can be justified. If they jumped in with almost every permutation you can think of from the off it would be an incredibly expensive investment, some items would have very little return even if it goes well, and if it does not then that would be a seriously large amount of money to write off.

 

Introduce a basic system first, and if popular enough the fancy bits can be justified.

A small (one-man) firm in France managed to produce a fairly comprehensive range of OH equipment (JV) for both 1.5kV and 25kV. It should not be beyond Peco, especially with the backing of Sommerfeldt.

[Dunsignalling]

Why should you need a button? Ignoring is a manual process.

True, but I try to weed out the items that fall outside my sphere of interest to keep the "View New Content" pages within bounds.

[Clive Mortimore]

As Andi has pointed out, at the moment there is a lack of some of the more common types of mast and other items that will enable our model railways to appear more realistic. I haven't as yet looked at the Sommerfeldt range but I wonder if there are some items that will or could be matched with the new Peco range?

[Andy Y]

Why is there no "ignore this topic" button on this thread?

 

Because it's a comparatively new forum area and a setting hadn't been amended in another module. That's now been adjusted but don't expect to find it on the same software used by other forum sites as it's a bespoke module.

[Removed a/c]

I have to put this out there as it seems to me that those that are banging on about crossovers etc and not having any prototypical mast etc....  probably by now would have made their own catenary. That being the case why is it an issue? I don't know much about catenary, so the Peco stuff will do for me, if I wanted it to look 100% real I would just by a real railway !!! I will be quite happy with a bit of knitting around my layout as I am sure will be the case for 100s of other modellers. 

 

 

 

BTW Peco catenary now online and available for purchase !  

[Clive Mortimore]

I have to put this out there as it seems to me that those that are banging on about crossovers etc and not having any prototypical mast etc....  probably by now would have made their own catenary. That being the case why is it an issue? I don't know much about catenary, so the Peco stuff will do for me, if I wanted it to look 100% real I would just by a real railway !!! I will be quite happy with a bit of knitting around my layout as I am sure will be the case for 100s of other modellers. 

 

 

 

BTW Peco catenary now online and available for purchase !

May be you are right that the "It will do" attitude is the one to take. It was the one we were told we should take when the best diesels were Lima and the best steam were Mainline.

 

It was when I started to look at why OLE was like it is I started to realise the mechanics of the system.

 

The contact wire can only be made so long, and you cannot simply tie to ends together. That is why there are overlaps, where one wire length finishes and the next one starts. It is here where the tension needed to keep the wire the right height above the track is applied. The wire expands and contacts with the air temperature, again the tensioning weights take up the expansion by pulling it or are pulled up by the wire contracting. The wire will try to move with the various forces acting on it so the middle mast of each run is a mid point anchor, this is the only mast which is not made to allow longitudinal movement. There is never more than 14 mast from the overlap to the mid point anchor. Why 14, I have still to find out.

 

Where electric trains switch from one track to another they need a wire above them this needs to feed in from somewhere as it cannot be just soldered on to the contact wire. Stations cannot have live OLE components above the passenger platforms, so special mast are required in station areas. To keep the civil engineering work to a minimum bridges are raised only a little, therefore the wires going under them need to dip down thus requiring yet another type of mast.

 

Now with most modellers liking their stations, a bridge for the bus to sit on and sidings etc.mast for these locations do seem to be quite important, let us hope Peco will make them in the future.

[wombatofludham]

Now for sale on eBay.  That didn't take long.

 

I did wonder given the Peco range comes from Sommerfeldt if their HO stuff might work alongside the Peco range, particularly the centremast twin track assembly for oversized "six foots" and the twin-arm assembly for crossovers.  There again Dapol have said they intend to carry on developing their range this year so by the time I come to stringing up the knitting I might be able to use Dapol OHLE for my needs.

[The Ghost of IKB]

Am I right in thinking that single masts aren't used in stations (other than on single lines) and that only gantries (or portals or headsman or whatever the correct term is) are used?  I can't find any evidence, at least not in the north west to contradict this apart from on single lines such a Glossop.  If this is right, since most of us have at least one station that isn't an SLT, both this system and Dapol's are pretty useless until they release at least some form of gantry  

[Clive Mortimore]

Am I right in thinking that single masts aren't used in stations (other than on single lines) and that only gantries (or portals or headsman or whatever the correct term is) are used?  I can't find any evidence, at least not in the north west to contradict this apart from on single lines such a Glossop.  If this is right, since most of us have at least one station that isn't an SLT, both this system and Dapol's are pretty useless until they release at least some form of gantry  

Hi

 

The mast on sale from both Peco and Dapol as made are not suitable for use above platforms. The arms of the mast are electrically live. You cannot have 25 KVa dangling above the public. There have been several ways of keeping the trains running and the public safe. With Mk1 equipment it is normally a portal (gantry) arrangement, this quite rare with Mk3 but not unknown. Where a portal is used for Mk3 the wires are held in place using headspan registration arms.

 

Headspan

 

Typical of the southern end of the ECML

 

Another approach as seen on the Lee Valley line

 

Similar approach

 

And if you have a foot bridge to get the wires under it