Prototypical Telephone Poles (and tips)

[Anonymous]

Art Fahey from Bar Mills came to our club meeting and gave us a great tip for telephone pole wire. Take strands of copper wire from frayed electrical cords and attach to poles and paint black. They sag better than string or nylon strech cord. He also used wooded cooking skewers in inda ink for poles.
What I need to know now, is where can I buy decent cross beams for the poles, that have decent looking prototypical electical bulb like attachments?

[cwclark]

I have been successful using Evergreen styrene strip plastic for cross beams and 1/8 watt resistors from Radio shack ground down in half as insulators in the past...i've also found that Atlas makes a good looking pre-made telephone pole that really doesn't cost that much when you look at the time and money spent building them from scratch....I don't string wire on mine anyway..the wire is a really good elbow grabber...Chuck

[darth9x9]

Rix makes a decent telephone pole with cross arms kit. There are 4 or so in the bag. It's pretty easy to paint the insulators metallic green or a pearl color.

[orsonroy]

Rix also sells just the poles and just the crossarms as individual items. They're probably your best bet for telephone pole crossarms. The best hi-tension electrical crossarms on the market are by Walthers.

[dknelson]

Rix makes a cross beam that is actually cast in translucent green plastic
that way you paint everything BUT the insulators -- if done right it is astoundingly realstic. The late John Proebsting (spelling?) a superb Soo Line modeler showed some photos on his layout to a local NMRA division clinic that introduced me to this product.
Rix also makes the poles but they sell poles and cross beams separately
Dave Nelson

[orsonroy]

Dave,

Thanks for the info on the green Rix crossarms! I've seen them on a few layouts during layout tours, but I've never been able to get an answer as to who made 'em!

Great....now I've got replacing my telephone poles as a new priority...

[dknelson]

Glad to help Ray. Everyone I have shown the Rix product to has gotten very excited by finally seeing a solution to a long-standing detailing challenge.

By the way as to the actual wires on the insulators -- there is a product which is essentially a green or dark elastic product -- it is ACC'd to the insulator one at a time, starting with the lower/inner insulator and working out then up.
The advantage of this over the thin stranged wire idea that Andy mentioned above is first that wire can kink easily (and cannot be unkinked easily) and also -- the elastic is more forgiving of errant hands, derailments, visiting cats, and so on.
The product is available at craft stores but a special line has been offered to model railroaders from time to time in colors more realistic for our purposes
Dave Nelson

[jrbarney]

Andy,
One vendor for the elastic cord is Berkshire Junction:
http://www.berkshirejunction.com
You should see their demonstration in action. Who knew ? Spandex for railroads ! Their green is the verdigris color of weathered copper.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[Anonymous]

Hi all
the telphone poles of the moulded plastic have always been good enough for me.
particularly the Merit ones being short like they are.
My advice would be if you are going to the effort of producing A1 line poles
Don't string the line and don't put the poles on the side of the line you reach from sounds obviouse i know but if you do one derailment could cost you the pole line
when you get tangled up in it.
The cross arms should all be on the same side of the pole on all poles unless it is a termination arm at the end of the pole line or for some reason the termination is on a pole before the end of the line.
regards John

[Allen Jenkins]

It's funny when I here someone call utility poles "telephone poles." I've seen conductor's phone boxes on short stubs, however not to many telephones on any poles. I know, the telephone wire, or as we say in the South - "Bell wire," is strung on these creosote preserved, pine poles, and since the telegraph lines, and now days, switch and signal wires are there, that makes them a given. From the ground up, (about 30 feet) are the phone and cable TV conductors - all electrical wires are called conductors. the aeral lift trucks that service these are short, to keep the tech's out of the topmost conductors, distribution (7,200v to 14,400vAC per line) and transmission( always 4wire , 46,000v total )lines. The powerlines are either single phase, one primary(power) and one neutral (ground), or three phase, three primaries, one neutral. The way these are strung, depends on the utility company, which maintains the lines. Each one may use different equipment, it depends on the era and location you model, and whether the property owner lets them on the property. Don't forget guy wires.
The Asplundh Tree Expert Company, now in there 76th year of business, has, along with arboriculturists developed rights-of-way tree clearance, by selective pruning, to a recomended 30 foot clearance, 15' each side of the primaries, at least 15' above, although its not practical to remove all the overhead, they do crown reductions, when practical. Topping trees(a sin) causes suckers to grow off dead stubs, and is illegal in my town's city limits, by the utilities request. The power outage that tookout the northeast, was caused by literally tens of thousands of trees left un-trimmed. That is why they could not re-energize the lines, because the computers which control the power grid constantly detected power lost to contact through vegetation, draining more power than the system could safely generate. Lack of clearance,caused by property owners request, lack of local funding, or the utilities waiting on a FEMA storm, to impliment thousands of tree crews, paid by taxes, which is why in a bad storm year, FEMA almost runs out of money.
So, call'em whatever, I was just kidding about the telephone poles, 'just thought I'd add to something to model, that it seems is just know being developed. Notice the absence of bucket trucks and chippers, or men climbing trees? By the way poles, wires, including phone and guy wires, are subject to be inergized, as are yard trees, and their root systems, when they are into the power(call your utility), so stay safe, live to model, and post pics of your work! Enjoy Your Power To Model.ACJ