Utility pole spacing in HO

[kasskaboose]

Discussed earlier on the forums and it seems the answer varies.

 

[BigJim]

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.

[richhotrain]

I set my telephone poles 12 inches apart, 87 feet scale in HO. That spacing always looked good to me.

Rich

[rrebell]

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.

[rogerhensley]

Telephone Pole Spacing
by
Roger Hensley

Q) 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 Practices

City 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.

[wjstix]

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

 

1 foot equals 87 ft. in HO, so that's would be a convenient distance to use....

[John-NYBW]

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.

[doctorwayne]

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

[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

[dknelson]

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

[tstage]

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

[gmpullman]

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

[BATMAN]

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.

[mreagant]

I have several of them that I bought a number of years ago.  How far apart should they be?