Hobbies are supposed to be enjoyable and relaxing – a refuge from the various stresses of life. I was reminded of that over the past 24 hours.
Yesterday, in a break between work commitments, I installed cross span wires over my S scale models of the Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto Railway car barn and yard. These wires would support the trolley wire over each track in this yard area.
As a test goes, the wiring went well – although I did encounter a few issues.
- I could not get the cross spans tight enough. I got them tight-ish and they’re wonderfully straight, but I can still easily pull/deflect them. That won’t do when adding the trolley wire.
- Even so, the tension on the cross spans bent the poles inward significantly. I don’t like that look.
- More worrisome, after adding the cross span wires I ran my freight motors back and forth – including doing some switching with a few cars in the storage yard area. Even with this minimal amount of overhead, I was getting hung up in the wires when uncoupling cars or otherwise reaching into the layout. I did not find this quick experiment enjoyable or relaxing. Your milage may vary.
- Having hung a few overhead wires, I now cannot imagine repairing a broken throwbar, resoldering a wire, or adjusting a rail that’s gone out of gauge with a spiderweb of cross spans, pull-offs, and trolley wire just 4.5″ or so above railhead.
There are really two issues here: Technical and emotional. The technical ones – tension, bending poles – are things I could overcome with some experimentation and practice. I’m not worried about those. The emotional ones, though, are deal-breakers.
I slept on the issue and realized the hassle of operating under wire coupled with the challenges of maintaining an operating layout in top condition with wire in the way is not worth the extra verisimilitude. Not for me.
As a result, this morning I hauled out the side cutters and clipped out the cross spans that I had installed the afternoon before. I’ll run the NS&T with the poles stowed.
I now have some ugly blobs of solder on the line poles that I’ll have to clean up. But if that’s the price of learning this lesson, I’m happy to pay it.
Onward.
The Model Railway Show 