Making Catenary Hangers - The Right (Wright) Way!

Steve Wright has put together this handy guide for the method he uses to make Catenary hangers & registration arms, which he uses with our LX050-OO catenary portals. The method shown in this article involves some soldering but if you're not confident with using a soldering iron, glue, or adhesive suitable for metals can be used instead of soldering. Steve's method gives a great end result.

What do I need for making Steve's hangers? 

For this project, you’ll need two packs of Precision Metals K&S Brass Rod Part No: K&S 8161 & K&S 8160

What Tools will I need?

• Cutters
• Pliers
• Track Pins (for making a jig)
• Soldering iron
• Solder & flux
• Thin solder or thin solid wire (for the insulators)
• A file to tidy up cut ends
• Humbrol Paint 73 Matt Wine
• Humbrol Paint Matt Grey
• Super glue (for attaching arms to the OHLE gantries)

Let's Get Started... 

Start by cutting a piece of 3/64” Brass Rod, three centimeters long in length. This is for the main Registration Arm upright.

Cut a piece of the .032 Brass Rod, two centimeters long in length. This is for the registration arm.

Next, cut a piece of 3/64” Brass Rod, two centimeters in length for the Catenary wire support upright.

Now cut a piece of .032 Brass Rod, one centimeter in length for the Catenary wire support.

A simple jig was made to hold the uprights using a few track pins on a wooden board.

Next, place an upright piece into the jig & then tin the end of the upright with solder as highlighted in the image below, Also tin the end of the registration arm piece with solder as well.

Before attaching the registration arm, it needs to be shaped using pliers or similar. Bend the arm into a z shape so it looks the same as shown in the image below.

Now, solder the two parts together and tidy up the joint with a file if needed. As seen in the image below.

Using a thin piece of solder wire, wrap the thin solder wire around the registration arm around five or six times.

Then cut the thin solder wire leaving a coil around the registration arm. These will be the insulators.

Repeat the process with the Catenary support arm. Solder the two parts to form an L shape.

Again, using a thin piece of solder wire, wrap the thin solder wire around the arm five or six times. Then cut & remove the excess thin solder wire. It should look the same as in the image below.

The assembled parts are ready for painting. Paint the uprights and arm’s in a grey colour. The insulators paint them in Humbrol number 73 Matt Wine colour.

The parts after painting should look the same as in the image below.

Fitting the parts

Glue the uprights to the head span so that when the catenary/contact wires are attached, they are above the center line of the track below it. When attaching the uprights, the main registration upright is located on the leading side of the head span/portal cross beam, whilst the catenary support is fitted on the other side of the head span/portal cross beam. 

It should look like the example in the photo below. The headspan below has been fitted with catenary hangers for five tracks.

With the wires fitted, & the catenary portal installed on the layout it should now look something like as shown in Steve's image below.

Thanks to Steve Wright for this article. Be sure to check out his YouTube Channel featuring his Layout Walstead Green.

Happy Modelling