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Telephone poles: Telephones lines only?
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[quote user="tstage"]<br><br>Were telephone poles (that ran beside the mainlines during the steam age) strictly used for telephone transmission <u><i>only</i></u>, or were they also used for other things, as well?[/quote]<br><br>"Pole line" is the correct term. It was used for signal circuits, signal codes (for CTC), communications lines, and power. But it depends on the railroad, the location, and the year in question. Not all were present all at once at any one place, necessarily<br><br>[quote user="tstage"]<br>Did telephone poles ever carry electrical lines? Or, because of the transformer, were electrical lines designated strictly to utilily poles?[/quote]<br><br>The pole line very frequently carried both power (such as 2300V) plus signal circuits plus communications lines. Sometimes the power lines were separated by placing them on a short top crossarm., sometimes on the same crossarms -- depends on the voltage and the railroad.<br><br>[quote user="tstage"]<br>If separate, how were electrical poles run in conjunction with telephone poles. Different sides of the street? Were they also run along the main line somehow?[/quote]<br><br>Sometimes separately, sometimes together. A common practice on high-density, important main lines was to run the signal department pole line on one side of the main track (with the power lines for the signal battery chargers) and the communications department's lines on the other side of the track. But just as often they were all on one pole line, if there weren't too many lines for the crossarms, and too many crossarms for the pole.<br><br>[quote user="tstage"]<br>Are there any good pictures of telephone/utility poles during the 30s/40's to glean some good prototypical modeling information from?[/quote]<br><br>Railway Signal Engineer -- an old trade journal, now defunct, had lots of photos. They are not easy to find outside of a few university libraries that still have them. Otherwise, you have to piece together from here and there. Don't overlook going out to the field to look -- there's still a LOT of pole line out there that isn't much different than it was 70 years ago, with the exception that the communications department lines are rarely used now, so in general, they've been removed.<br><br>S. Hadid<br><br><br>
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