[ohioriverrailway]

Every July 4th weekend a group of members from the Yahoo large scale trolley group get together to share projects and shop talk at the Illilnois Railway Museum IRM.ORG

Here are a couple of videos I shot. That single trucker with the bunting is actually taking its power from the overhead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8-zvuR7qqA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRXKHN3c5Es

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hj8tMwFzg

The folks at IRM are wonderful hosts, and run a top-notch museum as well.

 

[Bill Swindell]

SUPER! Tell me about the overhead. What are the poles made of? Are the poles commercial or did someone make them? The track is on some sort of wood. How are the poles mounted to this track base? How hard is it to string the wire on a portable layout like this one?

 

[Dennis Paulson]

Thanks for shareing the fun . Nice looking equiptment , and the overhead wire looks great .

 

[ohioriverrailway]

Bill -- John Nelligan of IRM made the modular overhead. The roadbed is Trex or something similar. The poles are about 5/16 steel bar stock, threaded on the end and bolted into cross pieces under the roadbed. The wire is NS. He made the switch frogs from brass; the hangers are from Karl Johnson of Light Rail Products. John made "splice ears" from brass tubing cut lengthwise to join thw wires from module to module. The pull offs actually have small hand-made "johnny ball" insulators in them!

It took a bid of fiddling to get it set up and the wires adjusted properly, but once it was done his single trucker ran flawlessly for 5 hours. If you want more info, let me know and I'll send you his email address off-board.

 

[Dave F]

I love the IRM. I used to visit quite regularly when I lived nearby.. Guess I need to plan a trip to the old stompin' grounds..

Looks like you guys had a great day. I'd love to see more pics and video if you have any.