Overhead along Ocean Blvd.

After a considerable amount of trial and error, the lower part of Ocean Boulevard has overhead wiring - well, more correctly, overhead thread as it's all just for looks.

Here's a summary of steps to get it installed:

1. Calm your mind. This isn't a flippant comment, if you're edgy or pre-occupied, don't try any of this. Any time you feel your concentration lagging, take a break. Take plenty of breaks. I worked on this on-and-off for several days, maybe a half-hour or so at a time.

2. Set the height of the cross wires with the gauge. I didn't glue the poles in place, they're just friction fit in holes drilled into the layout. They're quite snug, but this allows for some adjustments to be made.

3. On the cross wires, mark the centre of the track using the gauge and a red Sharpie pen.

4. Slide the wire hangers over the red marks, and glue each hanger in place with a drop of medium thickness super glue. Make sure the hanger's ears are approximately parallel with the road surface.

5. Cut a length of thread and lay it down on the track's centre line.

6. Starting at the centre posts, smear a thin layer of medium thickness superglue on the underside of the hanger ears. Lift the thread up and attach it to the underside of the ears. It should hold itself within 2 or 3 seconds. Once it's attached, give it a light spray of accelerant to speed the bonding process.

7. Once the overhead thread is bonded to the centre hanger, proceed outward down the road using the same procedure. The only difference is that you'll need to pull the thread ever so slightly to tension it as you glue it to the next hanger. 

The thread has very little tension in it, and can't withstand the vertical force exerted by the springs in the PCC's trolley pole. I had to install a safety line to the trolley pole of just the right length so the pole's wheel just nestled onto the overhead thread without too much upward force. This prevented the overhead from being grossly distorted when the trolley pole was engaged.

The overhead is quite spindly and delicate, which gives it more-or-less the right look in HO, but I'm not sure how robust it will be over time. I notice in the lead photo that one of the ears wasn't glued properly and has debonded. Hopefully that's just a teething pain. The next tricky part will be installing overhead in the Mortimer Park Loop.