Do you wire your telephone poles ?

[Red Horse]

Oakhurst,

I told my wife about my idea also and she said that she likes her squirrell medium rare....LOL!

[Rotorranch]

Personally, I plan to go to underground utilities.  Just gotz to find a way to dig those trenches in the plywood.

"reallity is just a concept and for those who can't handle drugs."

John C

LOL...I thought about that ( underground utililties ) just after I posted my response. I wasn't thinking about the trenches though.

All ya need is a 1/87 Ditch Witch!

Rotor

[Oakhurst Railroad Engineer]

Awesome idea on the squirrell, if you can't get him to stay on the line, just paint him black and set him on top of a transformer.....ZZZZZzzzzaaaappppptttt!!!, Yum, fried squirrell!!!

I told my wife of your squirrel suggestion.  Now both of us are now in trouble!

[Nagrom1]

Maybe to create uniform sag, you could apply the wires tight, and add some form of weight running across all of them for a while, untill they stretch out and give you sag.

[Red Horse]

Awesome idea on the squirrell, if you can't get him to stay on the line, just paint him black and set him on top of a transformer.....ZZZZZzzzzaaaappppptttt!!!, Yum, fried squirrell!!!

[Anonymous]

I was just about to suggest those ''tottally wired'' poles

[Oakhurst Railroad Engineer]

<p>I will continue to wire my poles and when I get to that point where I&#39;m doing so on my section that is the &quot;Wrong side of the tracks&quot; I will be having a tiny pair or two of sneakers thrown over the lines for a little more realisum.....LOL and I&#39;m going to try and put up a few tiny &quot;have you seen this dog / cat/ person or car posters on a few.....LOL!</p><p>&nbsp;Now it got me to thinking.......does any one use man hole covers on their roads???</p>

My wife suggested I add a squirrel running along the wires ... so I backordered some HO scale squirrel figures from Walthers.  Don't necessarily know if it will work ... gluing a squirrel to a wire?  It will also be very small and hard to photograph.

Marty

[larak]

I will continue to wire my poles and when I get to that point where I'm doing so on my section that is the "Wrong side of the tracks" I will be having a tiny pair or two of sneakers thrown over the lines for a little more realisum..

That's a GREAT idea!

 

 Now it got me to thinking.......does any one use man hole covers on their roads???

I plan too in my town section - haven't gotten that far yet.

Karl 

[Red Horse]

I will continue to wire my poles and when I get to that point where I'm doing so on my section that is the "Wrong side of the tracks" I will be having a tiny pair or two of sneakers thrown over the lines for a little more realisum.....LOL and I'm going to try and put up a few tiny "have you seen this dog / cat/ person or car posters on a few.....LOL!

 Now it got me to thinking.......does any one use man hole covers on their roads???

[Anonymous]

Personally, I plan to go to underground utilities.  Just gotz to find a way to dig those trenches in the plywood.

"reallity is just a concept and for those who can't handle drugs."

John C

[Lillen]

I agree with larak. Gotta have a bit of sag.

I notice, the lines in front of my house DON'T all sag equally.  I don't know if there is a standard for how much sag is required in the lines.

Sag also will vary due to temperature. The lines will sag more in hot weather.

So as long as all the lines sag a little bit, I think that's ok. Just don't string them like a guitar!

Rotor

 

I see these differences quite frequently and quite dramatically.

 

Where I live it can be -30 degrees Celsius during the winther. During the summer can reach around +30 in the shade and of course a lot more in the sun. This have a dramatic effect on all wires and it's really easy to see it. The companies that put up wires must have fun when making the slack just enough.

 

Magnus

[UpNorth]

Check the latest MR for advertisement regarding pre-wired  T-Poles and the article by Pelle  Soeborg.  His pictures have wired T-poles.  Looks great.  Patience,  patience.

[delray1967]

Thanks for the rapido website.  I like the movie clips, interesting to watch.

[Oakhurst Railroad Engineer]

...  Anyhow, all of the layouts I've seen with wires strung with the lycra don't look good to me because it's strung tight and in the real world, it has a sag of several feet, in smooth downward arcs.  ...  It does look impressive, just not photo realistic.

  Ditto with two t's. This is one of my pet peeves. Even most of the layouts in MR that have lines have them strung way too tight. In the real world the poles would be pulled over at the first small drop in temperature. I guess I notice this because of decades in the electrical business. Nothing ruins the look of a fantastic layout for me more than too tight wires.  I'd rather have empty poles.

What we need is a repeatable method / material that will droop realistically. Are any manufacturers listening?

There have been several threads about wire vs no wire in the past. Some say "why bother, you can't even see them from normal viewing distances" others find them absolutely necessary. It really is a matter of choice - just PLEASE add some realistic sag if you choose to use them. Thanks for letting me rant. I try not to do it often.

 

Anybody know how to get EZ line to droop AFTER it is installed tight?  I know it stretches and deforms if you pull it hard enough, as I did this a few times by accident during the initial installation.  Now though, I'm afraid to pull it too hard and risk breaking the line or poles. Any help?

[jrbernier]

Berkshire Jct makes the phone line material.  Here is the URL:

http://www.berkshirejunction.com/

Rapido Trains makes the phone poles/line in a box:

http://www.rapidotrains.com/telepoles.html

Hope this helps....

 

Jim 

 

[Red Horse]

Hey, It's all good....Mine started out taunt but after catching the cuff button on them a few times they are sagging just enough...LOL!

I like the look of the poles wired it adds a "finished" touch and since I'm building my layout in removable sections I can get away with wiring them, when I add a section a simply snip the lines and reconnect them when the new module is in place.

Happy Rails my Friends, I'm off to work a 48hr shift to support my MRR Habit.

[Rotorranch]

I agree with larak. Gotta have a bit of sag.

I notice, the lines in front of my house DON'T all sag equally.  I don't know if there is a standard for how much sag is required in the lines.

Sag also will vary due to temperature. The lines will sag more in hot weather.

So as long as all the lines sag a little bit, I think that's ok. Just don't string them like a guitar!

Rotor

[larak]

...  Anyhow, all of the layouts I've seen with wires strung with the lycra don't look good to me because it's strung tight and in the real world, it has a sag of several feet, in smooth downward arcs.  ...  It does look impressive, just not photo realistic.

  Ditto with two t's. This is one of my pet peeves. Even most of the layouts in MR that have lines have them strung way too tight. In the real world the poles would be pulled over at the first small drop in temperature. I guess I notice this because of decades in the electrical business. Nothing ruins the look of a fantastic layout for me more than too tight wires.  I'd rather have empty poles.

What we need is a repeatable method / material that will droop realistically. Are any manufacturers listening?

There have been several threads about wire vs no wire in the past. Some say "why bother, you can't even see them from normal viewing distances" others find them absolutely necessary. It really is a matter of choice - just PLEASE add some realistic sag if you choose to use them. Thanks for letting me rant. I try not to do it often.

 

[delray1967]

I like the green, bare wire look it has.  I see the sag in the middle wire, and understand the trouble of getting them all to sag the same.  Looks very nice, I like the colors used on the rest of the layout, it all blends nicely.

[Oakhurst Railroad Engineer]

EZ line works well.  If you are really careful, you can even get it to droop a little if that is what you want.  It is hard to get all three wires to droop the same amount, so it is actually easier to install them all tight.  So far after a week, the lines all snap back perfectly when touched.  I'd like to figure out a way to get the tight ones to stretch and droop a little, but I'm afraid to pull too hard on them.

I tried elastic thread from the sewing store, but it is too thick.

In this picture, the three lines holding up the pole attached at the top are the thick elastic thread.  The thinner lines that connect to the middle of the tree are EZ line.

 

[delray1967]

Someone offers pre-strung poles, it's a new product advertised in MR, just can't think of the company.  Anyhow, all of the layouts I've seen with wires strung with the lycra don't look good to me because it's strung tight and in the real world, it has a sag of several feet, in smooth downward arcs.  Those wires strung tight don't look good to me so I'd leave them off.  It's a personal preference, so it if you like.  It does look impressive, just not photo realistic.  But then again neither does 'empty' poles.  That's why I don't have 'em on my layout at all.

[LD357]

 I've seen some really nice layouts with all the rigging\wiring of telephone\power poles done,  looks nice, but these layout were an oddity, they are ones that are actually finished! In as much as they won't have anything else added to them.

  My layout[s] are never finished since I'm always adding or deleting scenes and scenery. I suspect most layouts are in a state of flux and never really 100% finished and because of this, I don't add wires to my poles,  they get in the way of even routine maintenence and like stated above are dust collectors.

  If you want to wire those poles it can add some  more realism,  but it will also cause you headaches when you try to do more construction and maintenence on your layout.

[rolleiman]

There's special thread you can buy that looks and works best and doesn't collect dust. It's stretchy and doesn't break EZ. I can't think of the name right now. (anybody?)
I would recommend doing it last after everything else is finished. (less chance of hitting it)

It's called Lycra (sp?).. The same thing that Spandex is made out of.  

[loathar]

It depends on whether I want to order any pizzas or not!

BLMA makes scale cell phone towers for that...

[R. T. POTEET]

It depends on whether I want to order any pizzas or not!

[jblackwelljr]

There's special thread you can buy that looks and works best and doesn't collect dust. It's stretchy and doesn't break EZ. I can't think of the name right now. (anybody?)
I would recommend doing it last after everything else is finished. (less chance of hitting it)

EZLine from Berkshire Junction.  Haven't tried it but I will eventually.

[loathar]

There's special thread you can buy that looks and works best and doesn't collect dust. It's stretchy and doesn't break EZ. I can't think of the name right now. (anybody?)
I would recommend doing it last after everything else is finished. (less chance of hitting it)

[Lateral-G]

Stringing the wire between power or telephone poles is really up to you and if you like the look. I can't tell you to go one way or the other. However, I can suggest you might want to use an elastic or stretchy thread to represent the phone and/or power lines. That way if you happen to bump the lines you won't break them or snap a pole off. Fingers and hands are HUGE and have a way of damaging things on the layout when they enter the scene.   If you have lines crossing the tracks it could be a problem if you or your operators forget they're there if you have to re-rail, decouple or remove a car/loco. It's also tricky to get wire or thread that looks the correct scale. Most telepone lines are about 1" to 1 1/2" in diameter. That's about .010" in scale. That's not too bad. Check your local craft store to see what they have.

 

-G- 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I used to, but no longer. I found that the thread I was using was an excellent dust collector that never wanted to come clean.