cable run info sought please

The old concrete posts are spaced 1 to 1.5m apart depending upon loading and location. In the open on long straight runs about 1.5m apart but where there are branches to signal locations, cable bridges and radii they are often closer together. Normal posts are 6' with one third buried and anchored but there are also taller posts such that normal height people can walk beneath cable runs to reach trackside buildings rather than having to negotiate a stile of which there are also many to be found around the system e.g. outside IMRs. Signal locations (i.e. the transformer, capacitor and relay cases) have standard dimensions to a drawing which someone else may be able to offer, I can't lay my hands on one at present.
Of course there is some leeway in modelling too using girder I material to make cable bridges such as the enormous Gainsborough Road cable bridge at Leytonstone and elsewhere, and there are the hooped cable bridges to varying dimensions to carry the cables from anything from a two shelf cleat run to as much as the equivalent of a 20 shelf run.
Remember that apart from the Victoria line the air main is always in the top shelf, the air main is 1.5" GI pipe with an OD of about 2". When cable runs cross tracks at tunnel mouths and sometimes in tunnels too the typical way of maintaining the relative shelf position
is to double the run back on itself 180 degrees before taking it vertically, horizontally across then dropping down to continue in the same direction otherwise what is in the top becomes the bottom and vice versa! Keep you eyes out for such crossing runs and you'll see what I am describing all over the place.
Flatback brackets are mounted to the posts, these being 4 shelf brackets on the basic standard run and generally between two normally spaced posts you'll find two 'swingers' which hang of the air main to give additional support to the cables between posts. Where posts are closer together they'll be just one 'swinger'.

Runs may be single side or double side, the signal brackets are always closest to the track on a double sided run and the HT cables are on the back on bearer brackets, i.e. without lips.

There used to be a standard for the signal cable brackets, air main in the top on its own, signal 600vac main in the bottom shelf, safety signal cables in the shelf above the ac main and non-safety signal cables in the shelf below the air main. Telephone cables were placed in the bottom shelf with the ac main and miscellaneous other cables such as for pump alarms and indication etc were put in the non-safety signal shelf.

Over the years things altered a little, more comms meant that comms (telephone, PA and CCTV etc) cables were placed in the non-safety signal shelf as well as in the ac main shelf and the train radio cable is clipped to the lip of the top shelf to keep it free and clear of all other cables to ensure the best radio signal.

Cable dimensions for cables in the signal brackets can be anything from 3/8" to 3.1/2" for a 1 pair/20lb or early PVC 54pair/20lb telephone cables but typically 1/2" and 3/4" for signal 1 core 1/064 and 2 core 1/064 safety cables respectively, a single bracket shelf on a straight run could hold 21 tightly and neatly packed 2 core 1/064 cables, around a radius on a curve and in cable cleats (the brackets with plates screwed on to keep the cables in place on vertical runs) the number was 18 such cables. The ac main 19/064 cable was typically 1.1/4 to 1.1/2 diameter and a number of comms cables would be crammed in the shelf with it.
The non-safety shelf was lightly loaded with perhaps one control cable of anything from 3/4" to 1" diameter and perhaps a couple of miscellaneous cables of similar size but later a comms 74pair or 104 pair would have been shoved in there as there wasn't room in the ac main shelf, typical sizes for 74 pair and 104 pair cables are 1" to 1.1/2" diameter.

In the old days all the cables were lead covered but over the years the introduction of PVC added colour to the bracket runs!
Typical cable colours are Telephone=red, purple, blue or black, Train radio=blue, black or brown, signal non-safety green, blue, brown, purple, red, signal ac main=black, green, yellow. It's not an exclusive list and there is no standard as such, the colours are pretty much the manufacturers choices and what the suppliers supply. The orange cables that have popped up everywhere in the last couple of decades are fibre optic communications cables serving myriad purposes and not necessarily anything whatsover to do with LUL, as it also carries cables across London for other organisations, although most of them are.

Damn, even I'm in trouble!

When I tested mine, I used a solid section of wire as the air line and then used normal cable for the rest. I really hepls to give the whole lot a touch of paint, especially the air pipes.

In a shocking state now with paintwork faded, primer showing through; quite unlike the maintenance regime prior to LRT.

I've never measured one to be honest and I don't have the dimensions anywhere AFAIK but by eye I'd say 6" wide and 2.1/2" deep from memory.

That depends! I have always taken 00 scale to be 4mm to the foot so 2mm wide and 0.83mm thick (deep) and 16mm high.

Mmm! all sounds a bit small and fiddly and you'd have to use fine fuse wire as lead cables which would also give the characteristic sag! In my experience and I haven't done any modelling for at least 30 years there is always a little license with finer detail, there has to be or it simply wouldn't be seen and would be very tricky to produce.

I suppose the best way to get relative sizing for a model apart from measuring everything to the mil is to look at decent photos and use the gauge of the track to size everything relatively. There must be hundreds of usuable photos in the quiz archive.

Good man, I'm hoping to finish of A60 DM 5113 today, as soon as I've fitted my kitchen!!

As I said I haven't done any modelling in many a year but the golden rule is that if it looks right then it is right! I'm a diecast model collector and it's amazing how some dimensions are altered to make a model look right because the correct dimensions give an unrealistic appearance.

I wouldn't worry too much about the colours, I threw them in just in case anyone might like to know, as I said in scale terms you'd probably want fine fuse wire or cotton to get true 00 scale cables.

As for the posts they'll look okay as long as they are flat rather than square and the heights of runs do vary, some are so low they can be straddled by an average height person whereas others would be halfway up the average man's chest!