Quote from: Bigmac on April 08, 2026, 07:42:27 PMi read somewhere the old farish poole hall looks more like a modified hall.

Indeed the old Graham Farish Hall is a modified Hall, the plate frames can clearly be seen in front of the smokebox. additionally the fabricated smokebox saddle tapers outwards from the smokebox. it is a shame that Graham Farish have chosen to produce the first four with a Collet 4000 gallon tender insted of the Hawksworth one.

I can only assume that they are hoping for more sales when these are finally released. they have done this sort of thing with Coach liveries e.g. releasing blood and custard then a year or so later the Maroon 

Regards,

Alex

I'm in the 'masts but no wires' camp. Wires do look superb when present, but it's way beyond me to install them!
Kev E.

Well that is very sharp!!

Quote from: Jim Easterbrook on Yesterday at 05:25:31 PMI'm going to make myself unpopular and say that I much prefer to have masts but no wires. In most of the photos and videos I've seen I think the wires are far too visible, and if they wobble about as a loco passes it looks even worse.

I'm with Jim on this one.
My first Swiss layout had Vollmer posts and wires and I did like to see the pans riding them but it was quite a basic trackplan and fairly small. My current layout has much more trackwork and although I originally planned to have a wired system I found that it looked far too congested.
I think you can get away with a wired system on a medium to large exhibition layout but on a smallish home layout the wires start to dominate.
Because of this I am happy with just posts and cross-spans and I think it still gives a reasonable impression.



My electric locos have their pantographs set at a suitable height either by friction or secured with very fine fishing line.

Yes the wires are overscale, but I know there should be something present and I prefer overscale to having nothing at all   Seeing the panto float up and down as the loco progresses along the track is the thing that I love to see. Just like the real thing

My German friends tend to go for very fine representation of the wire which looks lovely,  but with the pantos left down or artificially set low and not touching the wire.


https://www.n-club-international.de/de/module/modulliste/modul-175-klamm.html

I'm going to make myself unpopular and say that I much prefer to have masts but no wires. In most of the photos and videos I've seen I think the wires are far too visible, and if they wobble about as a loco passes it looks even worse.

Another forum member has

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=54494.0


Trinity Road

@OneTrackMind

I don't like to see electric locos running without some representation of catenary, even if it's just the masts.

My European N layouts since the mid 1980s have always had catenary masts and wires, using the old Vollmer system (also sold by Minitrix).  It's overscale but robust enough for exhibition use and can withstand being pushed slightly aside for track cleaning etc.  The pantographs "ride the wire" but don't pick up power, hence there's no need for "knitting" in tunnels or over the fiddleyard., just lead-in and lead-out slopes at the end of the wire runs. 









Apparently it was seeing my layout running this way at an N Gauge Society show in 2002 which prompted the German N-Club International guys to invite it over to Stuttgart for 2003   Since then it's been to the European N Scale Convention three times and has participated in modular layouts NCI have brought over to the UK for TINGS and The Chatham Show.

The only compromise I have to accept is when participating in modular systems which have a mix of modules with and without catenary it's inevitable that electric locos have to run with pantos down to avoid problems with wire height (or lack of).   

If you have a fiddle yard then you don't need the OHLE there, and that's where you place/remove stock

This is a good question I grapple with too.  I have both at the moment, I've always loved layouts with catenary.  There are a couple of considerations for me.

1. How much do you take stock on and off the rails where there is catenary as it is awkward (its a pain on Bad Katsberg .. my little test layout)

2. Can you put up with the overscale nature of most (I can, I'm more a coarse modeller than a fine one)

3. Cost, I find the cost eye-watering for the continental stuff, luckily for me I managed to score hundreds of old veissmann masts and wires for $10CDN

4. Cleaning the track is a pain in the butt, but is possible, just be aware

5. Do you want the pantographs riding the wire or not?  I know a lot of people with wires don't have pantos up, as stringing wire Vs stringing wire that works are two totally different skills (I've done both, haven't quite got it working on bad Katsberg, but damn does is look amazing when it does!!)

For me as I go forward with my new layout, I think I will have wires for part of it, but not worry about the panto's riding it.  I thought stringing them would be a nightmare, but I found it surprisingly relaxing and I enjoyed it a lot. 

Don't forget you have the option of very reasonable Japanese (Kato and Tomix etc) masts, the won't easily take wires but they look great and are actually affordable

Graham

Here's a short video of my tests off Bad Katsberg with an E18 riding the wires