Plastic or wood poles?

[Anonymous]

After reading mikey9591's post "Telephone or Power wiring?" I started wondering how many modelers use plastic store bought telephone/power poles and how many use real wood and build your own?

If you use real wood how do you taper the poles like the prototype?

Is there a company that sells scale wood poles for this purpose?

I haven't gotten this far on my layout (H0) so haven't thought about what I will use when the time comes. I am a prototype scratch builder and am now thinking that scale wood poles and cross arms, although more time consuming, would be more realistic.

[Anonymous]

I use the walthers poles, but I don't follow instructions for assembly and I paint them to make them look like real wood (some people actually think theyre wooden when they see them).

[Jetrock]

My layout will have power poles for trolley overhead, and these often carried power and phone lines. Because if the need for these to be strong and sturdy (to support trolley wire under tension) I'm going to make them myself, either out of 1/8" brass tubing or 3/32" piano wire. There are commercial packages of the crossbars and insulators--I haven't decided whether I'll use those or just scratchbuild 'em. Some stripwood and a few seed beads are all one needs for insulators--I've got brown ones for the trolley insulators but would need some blue or green translucent ones for the power lines themselves.

A possible cheap source for poles, if one wanted to go with wood: those long Q-tip type swabs with wooden sticks. The grain is a little rough but, dipped in a suitable medium to dye them the right shade of cruddy gray-brown they make excellent poles for all purposes. I suppose you could have them by the medicine cabinet for use, and after using the swab for its intended purpose, nip off the head with diagonal cutters and stick the stick in a separate container for hobby use--although the swabs would also be useful for applying liquids to things in the hobby arena.

[AggroJones]

I use LikeLike old "train set" telephone poles.The detailing is good and they can be found dirt cheap at shows. I scratch wood detailing into them and paint it with Floquil roof brown, ATSF blue, UP gray as appropriate. I cut the base off, drill a hole into the pole, and install a piece of steel wire so it can be planted. Then they are heavily weathered.

[Anonymous]

So Jetrock what you're saying is that I have been throwing away telephone poles!! I use the long stick type swabs for many uses right here on my modeling workbench.