A guarded coaxial cable assembly including at least a pair of conductors, one or more rails, and a jacket covering these parts such as a first rail extending alongside two nearby conductors, the rail and the conductors embedded in an outer electrically insulating jacket, the outer jacket having a pair of generally opposed bearing surfaces for bearing transverse loads, the rail operative to reduce outer jacket deformations resulting from transverse loads applied to the bearing surfaces; and, the orientation of the rail and the conductors within the outer jacket operative to limit conductor or conductor jacket deformations resulting from transverse loads applied to the bearing surfaces.