Pelle Soeborg's informative and interesting tutorial article about modeling utility poles in the Nov. issue of MRR calls for Rix Products 30 telephone poles, which I assume means 30 ft. poles. Internet research comes up with 40 ft. as standard utility pole height. But maybe 30 ft. poles look better in 1:87 surroundings?
Thanks and regards, Peter
Maybe 30' above ground, and 10' below grade?
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Rix sells both 30' and 40' poles. I wonder if pole lines near a railroad line tend to be shorter than those along highways? I also think rural poles are often shorter. Certainly rural telephone poles look to be about 30 feet.
Dave Nelson
Thanks for the replies.
Mel, Thanks for the tips and photos, 35' above grade might be good.
Thanks again and regards, Peter
The standard Utility pole height was a 35' Pole with 7' in the ground leaving a top of pole height of 28'. When we bought poles, 35' poles made up 75% of our order for stock poles in inventory. The rest were a mixture of 40', 50' and 60' poles.
Of course we would order poles for a special project depending on the specifications for that project.
And the other thing that pisses me off with all these scenery gurus is roughing the poles with a wire brush or comb. The poles were SMOOTH, the lineman did not want their hooks to pop out if the poles were rough like Pele said in his last article on installing poles on the layout, and not every pole has a transformer on it, one transformer would service serveral houses, while a factory would have a large bank of transformers (usually 3) on the pole if they needed the power.
And all the poles were delivered in gons and not flats.
Rick Jesionowski
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Rick:
dti406And the other thing that pisses me off with all these scenery gurus is roughing the poles with a wire brush or comb. The poles were SMOOTH, the lineman did not want their hooks to pop out if the poles were rough like Pele said in his last article on installing poles on the layout, and not every pole has a transformer on it, one transformer would service serveral houses, while a factory would have a large bank of transformers (usually 3) on the pole if they needed the power. And all the poles were delivered in gons and not flats.
Thanks for that information. Poles that have been heavily scraped have always looked toy like to me. Besides, nobody in their right mind would want to climb a pole with huge slivers sticking out of it!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
How far apart to put the poles in HO scale? I put mine about a 12" apart. Atlas also sells the poles and they look quite realistic. Would the transformers shown for homes also power businesses?
kasskaboose How far apart to put the poles in HO scale? I put mine about a 12" apart. Atlas also sells the poles and they look quite realistic. Would the transformers shown for homes also power businesses?
The Atlas poles are nice, except that they are actually for railroad signal use due to all the arms and insulators. Most Utility poles onlyhave one arm and 3 insulator locations.
As an aside every so often due to a electrical anamoly called galloping the lines will be switched from one side to the other with one line being put on the top of pole during the switchover.
Rick Jesinowski
dti406 The Atlas poles are nice, except that they are actually for railroad signal use due to all the arms and insulators. Most Utility poles onlyhave one arm and 3 insulator locations.
Around here they have no cross arms at all, nor a third insulator. The hot and ground wires are stood off the side of the pole with insulators.
The hot is at the top. The ground is several feet below it. Below that may be the cable company's coax and/or the telco's telephone cable if they aren't buried.
Customer drops from the transformer do have three wires.
CG
CentralGulf Around here they have no cross arms at all, nor a third insulator. The hot and ground wires are stood off the side of the pole with insulators. The hot is at the top. The ground is several feet below it. Below that may be the cable company's coax and/or the telco's telephone cable if they aren't buried. Customer drops from the transformer do have three wires. CG
They have some of those type with short angled arms here in Ohio in some of the rural areas and would be quite prototypical.
And the telephone and cable providers are allowed to place their lines on eletric utility poles as noted the phone about 10' down from the power and the cable below it. Cable has some interesting things in their lines like battery backup boxes and a tennis rack looking thing every few hundred feet.
By the way the drop actually has four wires, a metal messanger and three power cables.
dti406 By the way the drop actually has four wires, a metal messanger and three power cables.
Messengers don't count unless they get shot.
Cable company coax (hardline) has a messenger also.
Many modelers, I believe, aren't familiar with the Walthers utility pole sets. These are inexpensive for what you get (IMHO) and there's lots of transformers and cross-members so you can mount the transformers between paired poles. I like these much better than the Atlas offering. The RIX ones are nice, especially the emerald glass insulators but the Walthers kits have more "goodies" included.
https://www.walthers.com/electric-utility-pole-set-kit-pkg-24
If I get a chance I'll post a photo of what the kit has to offer. The poles are "bare" and you can add crossarms in several configurations.
I believe Walthers would sell a lot more of these handy kits if they would let modelers know what's inside.
Regards, Ed
Some Walthers poles and transformers here...
...and here...
Wayne
Firing up the 'wayback' portion of my memory, I recall NYC lineside poles as being quite short, twenty feet give or take, along the rails on both sides of the Hudson River. Since they were on the river shoreline, there was no reason to raise them very high.
Regular utility/telephone poles were about twice as high in the same areas.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)