Re: Northern Electric 3rd Rail Details
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Nathan,
My apologies for not getting back with you sooner. I've had a lot of non-train stuff on my plate, and your question slipped lower and lower in my in-box.
Unfortunately, I don't have the original drawing to work from, which was scaled at 1/2" to the foot. Nearly all the dimensions are blurred into obscurity on the electronic version. With a lot of math, some fussing and metric conversions from the distance between the running rails, I have figured the distance from the centerline of the 3rd rail to the inside edge of the running rail (as shown on the drawing) to be about 2' 3". The 3rd rail's top level above the running rails looks like about 6". For modeling purposes, these?numbers are probably close enough.
I ran through my books this morning looking for any description of the 3rd rail. About all I found was in Demoro's book where he says the 3rd rail was 60# standard railroad rail, except for low-carbon/low manganese?48# rail on the Colusa branch. No dimensional information at all, but Demoro wasn't really into technical data (as I found out when I was asked to edit his chapter on equipment). Swett's SACRAMENTO NORTHERN isn't much better. I suspect if you need to know more, you will have to check the WRM archives.
Yours Aye,
Garth Groff ??
Garth, thanks for this drawing.? Can you make out the dimensions listed for the 3rd rail height above the running rails and the offset distance from the inside of the running rails to the center line of the 3rd rail?? Thanks many times over for your knowledge and support.
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