Garden Railway Forum

I was thinking of going a step further my making a power station coal fired of course with cooling towers. As anyone done this before I would like to distribute the power to a sub station with pylons. Are pylons available at all.

You could borrow the 12' to the foot scale ones from around here as the bloody things never seem to carry any power for any length of time at the moment.

.................... and of course you have to ensure that they fizz and buzz when the weather's damp, or it's foggy.....................

If you live in the beautiful open country, as Big Jim and I do, the last thing you want to see are pylons!
I would not encourage the use of pylons even in model form..... they are a scurge on the landscape and should be destroyed rather than glorified as part of our environment.

Search out old books on tramway modelling, especially in the larger scales. It was not at all uncommon for modellers to generate their own power- often from a Stuart Turner engine and boiler powering the genny. On the prototype many early schemes had to produce their own power as the municipal services were not yet developed, so small power stations were common. However smaller older setups would usually have reciprocating engines rather than turbines and lack refinements like condensers (which are only worthwhile in large installations or if pure fresh water is precious, like at sea) so a single tall stack and no cooling towers would be about right. As for distribution, transmission lines carried higher up on the traction poles would be adequate. On the Manx Electric, poles stand between the lines and carry three wires; a centre feeder and trolley wires for landward and seaward tracks.

Obviously there will be boilers to generate steam, which in turn will drive a meccano motor.

Can't say I've seen any for sale bud. I'm sure you could make some easy enough though. Would be an interesting project if you do build your own power station.