Height of trolley wire to use?

[pdx1955]

I need to put together a short section of track under wire just for looks. I purchased a couple adjustable single-bracket poles a number of years back for this purpose . While these poles are adjustable, I'd like to get the wire height right the first time since this is a background scene. I'll be cobbling together a steeplecab from Shapeways parts in the future to place on this "spur" . What is a good height for an interurban line (pole use not pans) that was typically used?

Peter

[Mark5]

I'm not sure, but maybe this info is on the NCAT site:

http://www.teamsavage.com/ncat

[nkalanaga]

Two things to consider:

1:  Do you have a favorite traction prototype, or is there one in the area you model?  If so, you might be able to find their standard height.

2:  Will your traction line cross the "steam road"?  If so, what era do you model?  Trolley wire that would clear 1930s trains might be too low for double stacks.

Beyond that, the only real consideration is what your traction line will supposedly be doing.  If it's strictly a passenger line, the wire could be as low as 16 to 17 feet, 1 3/16 to 1 1/4 inches.  If it will be hauling interchange freight, like the Iowa Traction or Yakima Valley lines, I wouldn't go much below 20 feet, 1 1/2 inches.  Some passenger lines also hauled freight in their own cars, which were designed to fit their clearances, but for your purposes those would qualify as "passenger only".

In theory, you could go as high as 24 feet, which both the GN and MILW used, but that would be unusually high for an interurban.  If it has to clear modern trains, though, that might be required, which would almost require that the poles be raised on some type of platform.

[randgust]

On a downtown streetcar, shoot for 18' from top of rail but I've personally seen it go as low as 12' 6" on the Memphis River Line streetcar in front of the hotel (with lots and lots of warning signs!).    If you're in freight traffic with modern equipment you're up to at least 22'6" at the lowest.

[pdx1955]

Thank you for the responses! I had looked on the Ncat site...but it's a mass of broken links and hasn't been updated in many years. This isolated piece of track for the Portland Traction Co/SP "interchange" on my layout only needs to have 1950's clearances, so it looks like something around 20' is appropriate.

Peter

[Iain]

The NS used 22.5' above railheads, and they hauled freight as well as standard passenger cars in addition to the interurbans.

[drgw0579]

I helped install the overhead for the restoration of the Fort Collins (CO) street car line and we used 16'.  This was satisfactory crossing city streets.  However the original line crossed what was then the Colorado and Southern at grade;  since the "Old Town" mall of Fort Collins is on the opposite side of the tracks, there was a desire to build a crossing with the BN (this was 1986).  But even then they would have wanted 22' which would have meant the trolley pole would have been almost vertical.  But they would have also wanted some sort of protected interlocking and the insurance would have been impossible to afford, so the idea was dropped.

The photo below is our "wire train", a speeder pulling the cable reel and tower car; the tower car is pulled by a cable.  The whole thing worked amazingly well and we could string a reel's worth of wire in a couple hours.  The two workers working the wire (one guy's nickname was "Sparks") used a gauge to get  a consistent height, they would get down when we moved to the next pole.

Bill Kepner

[nkalanaga]

Sounds like there wasn't anything even remotely resembling a standard height...