I have several of them that I bought a number of years ago. How far apart should they be?
It can vary. Go to Google Earth find a spot that you may want to use as a guide for placement and use the measuring tool to measure between the poles. 120' is good if you don't really care.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Some information:
Utility Pole by Edmund, on Flickr
Utility Pole_0001 by Edmund, on Flickr
Utility Pole_0002 by Edmund, on Flickr
Utility Pole_0004 by Edmund, on Flickr
In our model world everything (almost) is selectively compressed so you might get away with closer spacing.
Good Luck, Ed
Besides the Walthers insert that Ed conveniently provided above, MR had a very informative article about line poles in the late 2000s(?). I don't know the exact issue but someone who has the 75th anniversary DVD might be able to track it down for you.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I no longer recall the article or author but I was convinced: the suggestion was that it is not necessary to follow prototype pole spacing since, for example, our "city blocks" are almost certainly shorter than prototype blocks, often quite a bit so, width of streets is generally narrower than prototype, our towns (and their depots) are much closer, and so on You don't want the poles to look bunched up together but a tighter spacing than prototype can add to the illusion of spaciousness. If prototype poles are often about 125 feet apart (and it is further than that in rural areas) I'd go with 85 to 90 feet or so
Dave Nelson
Thanks. Certainly on my layout blocks and street dimensions are not prototype. I think the 85 to 90 ft. would be about right.
Mike
I don't yet have too many power poles on my layout, but the closest are about 8" or 9" apart, the furthest 15", most of the spacing based on structures or other already-in-place obstacles.
Wayne
I live in a rural area so it is quite different. I got out my laser and discovered to my surprise the poles are about 100 yards apart. That works when houses they serve are spread out.
mreagant Thanks. Certainly on my layout blocks and street dimensions are not prototype. I think the 85 to 90 ft. would be about right. Mike
Telephone Pole Spacingby Roger HensleyQ) This has to be a strange question. I have these telephone poles that I wanted to string out on the layout, and then it hit me, just how far apart are these usually, and in scale inches? A) Bell Common PracticesCity poles telephone:75 ft on street 40 foot poles 6 feet in the ground. Telephone cable 18 feet off of the ground with additional 40 inches minimum clearance to electric lines.Rear yards: 30 foot light duty poles. Usually every other yard. Cable height varies 12-18 feet above the ground depending on power share requirements.Rural: 75-100 feet. Telephone cable 18 feet off of the ground 40 inch clearance to electric lines.
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
Generally I have found that spacing like a lot of things should look right to you. I find that the key to a more relistic look is consistent spaceing in rural areas, and in urban you might need to modify that a bit depending on structures.
I set my telephone poles 12 inches apart, 87 feet scale in HO. That spacing always looked good to me.
Rich
Alton Junction
FWIW, Standard practice on the N&W was 40 poles to the mile which works out to 132 feet between poles. I think works out to 18.2 inches spacing in HO.
The 40 poles to a mile made it easy to figure out your speed.
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Discussed earlier on the forums and it seems the answer varies.