Hi,
For those of you that model a postwar (45-59) timeframe, how far apart do you place your countryside telephone/utility poles along your mainlines?
Of course this area of questions has come up before, but typically addressed the prototype practices. Here, I am more concerned what you did for your layout - and what you thought of it.
I've found that sometimes prototype practices do not translate very well to the layout, and the spacing of poles may - or may not be - one of these areas.
Thank you!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Well considering the poles were there since before the war, it's easier to follow the same ideas as the prototype. Are you talking telephone/utility for public use or railroad owned poles here? For me, I use around a foot or so for rail poles, rail poles are generally about 80 feet apart. They are usually lower to the ground ,except at crossings than utility poles. For utility poles, I usually place them at various distances, to what ever looks good. Remember, public utility poles , depending on transformers can be a few feet apart. Just mimic what you see out doors. Selective compression will make the distance seem greater. Place some poles out and see how it looks. mh.
Utility poles are typically about 100-120' apart. I space mine at 14" in HO.
Crandell
Mine are spaced around twelve inches apart. It looks 'right' to me.
Using a piant stiring stick, like what you would find in the paint department is a good template for spacing. It comes out about right in HO scale
I used around 20" which is 150', the standard for electric poles in my area. But ... for telegraph poles they look further apart than the ones that I remember along the NYC west shore. If I were to update the layout I would go with 16" for those.
Personally, I think that you need to place half a dozen on site and see how they look. Don't forget push braces and guys on bends.
Karl
The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it's open. www.stremy.net
mobilman44 Hi, For those of you that model a postwar (45-59) timeframe, how far apart do you place your countryside telephone/utility poles along your mainlines? Of course this area of questions has come up before, but typically addressed the prototype practices. Here, I am more concerned what you did for your layout - and what you thought of it. I've found that sometimes prototype practices do not translate very well to the layout, and the spacing of poles may - or may not be - one of these areas. Thank you!
Let's start with real life pratice and work backwards into some practical selective comprssion.
As someone who started their working career as an electrical design drafsman, I can tell you that depending on the class of pole and what it is carring, poles are spaced as close as 80' to as far as about 300'.
For example right in from of my home, the nearest to poles are almost exactly 300' apart - from the far corner of my left neighbor to my corner with my right neighbor. My front property line is 175', my neighbor's a little less - maybe 125'.
Our layouts, even the biggest of them tend to compress space a bit, so 300' is likely not going to look right.
100' to 150' is likely a good range for our models, about half of the typical real life utility pole line spacing.
That comes out to between 14 and 20 inches in HO, and looks believable every time I have seen it or done it.
Sheldon
On a street near the front of the table they should be 80-100' apart, this will vary to take into account street corners and where the city fathers might want street lamps.
On a second street you might want them closer together in order to force the perspective.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Hi!
Thanks guys for the input! On my last HO layout (93-08) I used 16 inch spacing for the poles that followed the mainline. It looked OK, but now that I'm "fixin" to scenic that RRs replacement (set in the '50s), I got to wondering if others placed them closer or ???
Sounds like a 14-16 spacing is a good bet, and I believe that is what I will do.
Thanks again!
One other thing that determines the distance between poles is how many and how big the wires are. The wire weighs a lot. I have seen poles in place for years that were quite a distance apart with only a very few (even one) wires on it. Poles were later added between the others once the load (number of wires) was increased. So depending on how the eyes are or how steady those line stringing hands are, you may want fewer lines and thus can place them further apart.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
When I installed the utility poles on my layout a few years back, I researched the topic of spacing and then experimented a little.
I just went down and measured the distance between the poles on my layout and, for what it's worth, they are 15 inches apart.
Rich
Alton Junction
As a service tech and cable splicer for Ma Bell in Central Massachusetts to estimate distance we would alway s use a distance of 100 feet per section for roadside poles on country roads.In citys and town s a little less ,perhaps . For interoffice toll cables in the country the long spans might be up to about 250 feet.