HO Scale Telephone Poles

[Anonymous]

I just picked up my first set of plastic HO scale telephone poles to run along the track and this is my first layout. To keep it to scale, how far apart should I place the poles to make it realistic? Has anyone gone to the extent of attempting to run some wire between the poles for even more real-life efect? If so, what material did you use?
Thanks
Ted

[Anonymous]

I just picked up my first set of plastic HO scale telephone poles to run along the track and this is my first layout. To keep it to scale, how far apart should I place the poles to make it realistic? Has anyone gone to the extent of attempting to run some wire between the poles for even more real-life efect? If so, what material did you use?
Thanks
Ted

[Anonymous]

Ted--

Telephone and telegraph poles could be spaced anywhere from 130 to 200 feet apart. To give the illusion of space I put mine about a foot apart, so I guess 80-90 feet in HO seems to look ok.

I've never bothered stringing lines--I'm too clumsy-- but I recall reading that Dave Frary used spandex thread--it would stretch if he accidentally hit or snagged the line.

Gary

[Anonymous]

Ted--

Telephone and telegraph poles could be spaced anywhere from 130 to 200 feet apart. To give the illusion of space I put mine about a foot apart, so I guess 80-90 feet in HO seems to look ok.

I've never bothered stringing lines--I'm too clumsy-- but I recall reading that Dave Frary used spandex thread--it would stretch if he accidentally hit or snagged the line.

Gary

[rogerhensley]

Bell Telephone Common Practices

City poles telephone:
75 ft on street 40' poles 6' in ground. Tel cable 18' off ground additional
40 inch minimum clearance to electric lines.

Rear yards: 30ft light duty poles. Usually every other yard. Cable height
varies 12-18ft depending on power share requirements.

Rural: 75-100 feet. Tel cable 18' off ground 40" clearance to electric
lines.

Poles by the Track
There are 40 poles to the mile. Each 4 poles is a tenth. And 1 pole length was considered 3 car lenghts. The last two facts were important to operatering personal when determiing where to find slow orders, changes in permanent track speeds, Limits, work orders, ect. Before radios the headend crew would count off the poles to determine when to slow down to let the tailend trainman get off the caboose to line back a siding switch to its proper position and get back on without stopping.

The pole alignment is a nominal 18 to 20 feet from the closest rail. The poles are set erect or with a slight pitch away from the track and have an average height of about 22 feet above grade... Where the lines cross a highway or a railroad track the height of the poles is gradually increased to provide minimum clearance under the lines: 18 feet for highways and 25 feet for railroad tracks... Real poles are spaced anywhere from 40 to the mile...to 26 to the mile... In model work, where distance is always a problem, a shortened spacing of about 80 scale feet is desirable.

I gathered this from several sources over the years.

[rogerhensley]

Bell Telephone Common Practices

City poles telephone:
75 ft on street 40' poles 6' in ground. Tel cable 18' off ground additional
40 inch minimum clearance to electric lines.

Rear yards: 30ft light duty poles. Usually every other yard. Cable height
varies 12-18ft depending on power share requirements.

Rural: 75-100 feet. Tel cable 18' off ground 40" clearance to electric
lines.

Poles by the Track
There are 40 poles to the mile. Each 4 poles is a tenth. And 1 pole length was considered 3 car lenghts. The last two facts were important to operatering personal when determiing where to find slow orders, changes in permanent track speeds, Limits, work orders, ect. Before radios the headend crew would count off the poles to determine when to slow down to let the tailend trainman get off the caboose to line back a siding switch to its proper position and get back on without stopping.

The pole alignment is a nominal 18 to 20 feet from the closest rail. The poles are set erect or with a slight pitch away from the track and have an average height of about 22 feet above grade... Where the lines cross a highway or a railroad track the height of the poles is gradually increased to provide minimum clearance under the lines: 18 feet for highways and 25 feet for railroad tracks... Real poles are spaced anywhere from 40 to the mile...to 26 to the mile... In model work, where distance is always a problem, a shortened spacing of about 80 scale feet is desirable.

I gathered this from several sources over the years.

[Anonymous]

Wires are very delicate and actually attrack damage as kids and even most adults will want to touch them. I used wire from bad swich machines. Unrap it and hang it from the ceiling with small weights for a week or so to get the coil out of it. i used ca gel to attach it and used green paint to paint the ca insulators when done. Always had trouble getting wires to hang right. They are too light. Concluded unless I was doing a show diarama it was too much work to have people fingering and break, which looks worse than no wires.

[Anonymous]

Wires are very delicate and actually attrack damage as kids and even most adults will want to touch them. I used wire from bad swich machines. Unrap it and hang it from the ceiling with small weights for a week or so to get the coil out of it. i used ca gel to attach it and used green paint to paint the ca insulators when done. Always had trouble getting wires to hang right. They are too light. Concluded unless I was doing a show diarama it was too much work to have people fingering and break, which looks worse than no wires.

[gerryleone]

Try E-Z Line, a product by Berkshire Junction, for telephone pole wires. This product gets my vote as one of the top 10 biggest innovations in model railroading in the last 10 years. I'm serious -- it's THAT good.

The stuff is extremely thin, so it really looks prototypical. Best of all, it has HUGE stretch. I think the manufacturer says it's something like 700% stretch, but I know from personal experience it can be stretched to 300% and still not snap, and doesn't sag when you let go. I have yet to break any OR knock down any poles, and I've caught the stuff on car trucks, on my finger, on my glasses, etc.

I have a minimum of 4 lines of E-Z Line strung between all of the poles on my layout and have never had to do any replacement. Best of all, the visual improvement to the layout (and pictures) is extraordinary and dramatic.

I believe it's only available online at www.berkshirejunction.com .

-Gerry

[gerryleone]

Try E-Z Line, a product by Berkshire Junction, for telephone pole wires. This product gets my vote as one of the top 10 biggest innovations in model railroading in the last 10 years. I'm serious -- it's THAT good.

The stuff is extremely thin, so it really looks prototypical. Best of all, it has HUGE stretch. I think the manufacturer says it's something like 700% stretch, but I know from personal experience it can be stretched to 300% and still not snap, and doesn't sag when you let go. I have yet to break any OR knock down any poles, and I've caught the stuff on car trucks, on my finger, on my glasses, etc.

I have a minimum of 4 lines of E-Z Line strung between all of the poles on my layout and have never had to do any replacement. Best of all, the visual improvement to the layout (and pictures) is extraordinary and dramatic.

I believe it's only available online at www.berkshirejunction.com .

-Gerry

[jwfoise]

Absolutely right about E-Z line, the stuff looks good and works great. I've also used it for rigging on ships and its very durable .

[jwfoise]

Absolutely right about E-Z line, the stuff looks good and works great. I've also used it for rigging on ships and its very durable .

[Anonymous]

How thick is this E-Z Line? Does it return to it's original lengt when the tension is released, or does it stay at the stretched length?
I picked up a spool of "Stretch Magic Bead & Jewelry cord" that I'm going to try eventually. It is .5mm in diameter (1.7 scale inches, which seems pretty thin to me in HO) and will stretch to at least three times its normal length. I think about a 10% stretch between poles (or fence posts, or whatever) might work; it should stay taut without too much pull on the anchor points.

[Anonymous]

How thick is this E-Z Line? Does it return to it's original lengt when the tension is released, or does it stay at the stretched length?
I picked up a spool of "Stretch Magic Bead & Jewelry cord" that I'm going to try eventually. It is .5mm in diameter (1.7 scale inches, which seems pretty thin to me in HO) and will stretch to at least three times its normal length. I think about a 10% stretch between poles (or fence posts, or whatever) might work; it should stay taut without too much pull on the anchor points.

[Anonymous]

When I worked on the CNR in the fifties (hence the "Oldtimer" moniker) they had car signs indicating number of cars in tens (e.g. "10 cars", "20 cars", etc , up to "100 cars") on every fourth pole starting from a passing track switch, so the crew didn't have to count poles to tell when the caboose ("van" up here) was nearing the switch. A little detail I haven't seen on any model railroad. On a model you'd have to fudge quite a bit, maybe a sign on every third pole, up to "20 cars"?.

[Anonymous]

When I worked on the CNR in the fifties (hence the "Oldtimer" moniker) they had car signs indicating number of cars in tens (e.g. "10 cars", "20 cars", etc , up to "100 cars") on every fourth pole starting from a passing track switch, so the crew didn't have to count poles to tell when the caboose ("van" up here) was nearing the switch. A little detail I haven't seen on any model railroad. On a model you'd have to fudge quite a bit, maybe a sign on every third pole, up to "20 cars"?.

[Anonymous]

I use a pin vise, mini drill and drill a hole into the base of the pole and also into the bench top.
I then connect the two holes with 22-24 gauge wire. Keeps the poles up-rigth and then you can wire the poles..

[Anonymous]

I use a pin vise, mini drill and drill a hole into the base of the pole and also into the bench top.
I then connect the two holes with 22-24 gauge wire. Keeps the poles up-rigth and then you can wire the poles..