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mdrailbaron
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Good morning, I believe the answer is yes, we have it here in Maryland on the Northeast corridor with Amtrak and Norfolk Southern, sharing track under wire. As this thread pertains to my small island railroad the answer would be the same. Since Si and others gave me their ideas, I think the story goes like this; when the mining company came to the island to mine Rhetoric, they brought with them a railroad to get the raw product from the mine to the pier. Since the islanders are very poor, mostly farmers and watermen, the mining concern knew they would never be able to pay for it. So the Company did the right thing, they built an island wide railroad and allowed others to rent equipment to ship their products. As the years went by the railroad told the islanders that if they would simply help maintain the railroad all costs would be forgivien for shipping their products. Well, this made sense since every family had someone working for the railroad many times it was father/son or brothers, uncles and a few aunts and sisters did the clerical work. During the height of the winter most fishermen couldn't go out anyway so they too worked for the railroad. it was a very workable and everyone benefited. As the years went by it became very clear that the Company needed a couple of extra locos, so along came the 4 wheeled switcher and the larger center cab to haul the freight from one end of the island to the other. Well the overhead wire was in place and still worked and the company decided to keep it and just add the other two locos. Now the electric loco goes from the mines and the north side yard down to the pier and back, while the center cab hauls between both towns and occasionally down to the pier. Well I guess that not only answers the question is there shared rail, regardless of the form of motive power, but also how and where the over head will go some day. As an aside, I did hear tell that early on if the small electric box cab hadn't worked out, they meaning the company, were going to pull the gear out of the loco and replace it with a small diesel engine, but it did work out and that seems to be the end of the story for now.Wishing you all happy trails, parallel rails, and trains that run on time, more or less,
Steve
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Si.
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Hi Steve 
The 'back story' is def. the way to go for me these days as well.
I started with a Shay & Porter, and a lil' story to go with them.
Along came a Mogul & some possible railbus-bodies ... the story grew a bit.
My story at the moment has THREE operations on shared trackage.
1. Mining
2. Railbus service
3. Through traffic
I couldn't justify the Mogul for my small mining idea...
...so it became a through-train, starting & ending, who knows where ?
I don't actually have a layout or even a trackplan yet...
...but the models I am making 'fit the story' & gradually a trackplan that makes sense will evolve.
Si.
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Kitbash0n30
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southpier wrote: Q: would prototype practice allow shared rails with a non-electric locomotive? Looking at prototype electric railways universally, yes.
Looking at any specific location and date, things will vary.
In general it is practical to have at least a couple pieces of non-catenary power for if the catenary goes down, or has to be shut down for maintenance. That power could be battery, internal combustion, steam.
Might even be a situation or industry somewhere on line requiring a flameproof loco of some kind, internal combustion, fireless stored steam.
Last edited on Tue Mar 7th, 2017 06:09 pm by Kitbash0n30
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Screw the rivets, I'm building for atmosphere
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southpier
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thanks for the perspectives. i've always liked the idea of overhead wires in an urban setting.
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Nice Guy Eddie
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All I can say is I'm pleased my Cadillac doesn't need overhead wires
Keep the pedal to the metal !
Eddie
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Helmut
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@southpier
Overhead and two-rail-operation on a modelrailroad have some pitfalls to avoid. One of the rails is normally used as common return for overhead and two-rail operation. That requires insulated wheels in the 'Juice Jacks', as only one side carries the return current, anfd the other side must be insulated in order to eliminate shorts. The danger in this arrangement lies in inadvertent wrong orientation of the overhead vehicle, because its motor may be exposed to double the operating voltage. This happens when both throttles are fully open and e.g. the wire is postive, whereas the other rail is negative, referred to the return rail. The workaround is to have a changeover switch that allows for overhead operation by shorting the two rails and cuts out the two rail-supply, and vice versa.
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Paul W
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If mixing overhead power and conventional self-contained locomotives, you might find it a whole lot easier to just run everything as 2-rail and forget about using functional catenary. Another possibility is on-board battery for the self-contained locomotive - Deltang is a name often repreated, but there are several other systems too.
Regards
Paul Woods
Whangarei, NZ.
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southpier
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with apology if i led anyone to think i have the "electronic acumen" to have live overhead: it would strictly be "for show".
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Kitbash0n30
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Ah, okay. I'd like to try to talk you in to doing a short straight track a couple feet long on a board - just so you can say you tried.  (if you haven't already) And straight overhead is the easiest to build, especially when it is simple suspension, basically one wire hung from brackets.
Take a two foot board; paint, seal, that kind of thing; put track on it; drill on track centerline at ends; insert metal rods; wrap trolley wire around rod at more or less the proper height. Feed power to one rail and to overhead for overhead capable equipment, and there ya go, a live wire test track!
Also a great place to try your hand at intermediate support poles and hangers.
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See y'all later, Forrest.
Screw the rivets, I'm building for atmosphere
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W C Greene
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OK, run the motor with r/c and onboard batteries but for goodness sake, please put up overhead with wire, not stretchy thread!Maybe more work but it will look tons better and you will be happy with the look. Then you haven't got wired track or any problems, just wires overhead.
Woodie-too scared to do this myself.
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