All of the poles I see traveling by truck are tapered. On the truck, it is obvious.
ROAR
I agree, but, I was told it is dependent on what they are used for. A utility pole has to be a lot more stronger and withstand different types of forces, then a telephone lite pole combo. Some are shaped so there is no taper. Not even the same kind of timber is used in all apps.
http://www.woodpoles.org/FAQ-America.html
Just because there is not a taper, I’m quite sure, the Taper Police, will not go after the OP, for not having one.
Frank
That’s too bad that Walthers is no longer stocking these. I bought a few sets when they first came out and I think they’re great. The transformers and crossarm options with this kit are very well done.
For anyone doing high voltage work, Tichy has petticoat style insulators available. http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/tic/tic8158.htm
Around here almost all the utility poles are tapered. I see replacement ones along the roadway sometimes and I would estimate the bottom diameter at 24" and the top at about 16" this would be on a 60 foot pole.
I have noticed more poles being ACQ treated with the resulting green color as opposed to creosote or other treatments resulting in the dark brown colors.
Here’s two poles laying top to bottom:
You can sure see the diameter difference here…
Happy modeling, Ed
Ed,
The Walthers pole set will likely be re-run. Need some myself. Popular sellers with wide application may show out of stocks periodically, but Walthers is pretty good about seeing which side the toast is buttered on with on-going demand for an item like this that is ubiquitous in most any landscape.
Hi, Mike
That would be good news on the Walthers pole kit. The stock photo does not do justice to what is included in the set.
To answer your question about stringing line, I don’t intend to but I “might” string up some of that Berkshire Jct. EZ line stretchy stuff in some out of the way places. Like you, I think it would be a headache to deal with when reaching over the layout, etc.
What I like about the Walthers pole kit is that you can make up rather large transformer setups that would likely be found where the service entrance to a factory or commercial building would have. That makes a nice detail. The plant I work at has 23 KV lines run on wood poles, a bit more than the 440 that Frank mentioned.
I’ll try to get a photo of mine posted soon…
Take care, Ed
Exscuse, but don’t run a razor saw down the side of the pole to give it texture, look at the picture of the real things, they are SMOOTH. Guys going up the poles with their belt and hooks want a smooth pole without any knots or the hooks will kick out, and believe me they don’t like that to happen.
Rick J
I can see what you mean, as I always thought the grooves made by the razor saw trick (a decades-old trick, IIRC) look way oversized in HO scale - perhaps sanding staight up and down along the lenght of the pole w/ 100 or finer grit sandpaper might be better to get some texture without looking too cartoonish.
BTW, as to skewers - I got a large bag from a dollar-store for the purposes of modeling a flatcar load - however, they looked kind of thin, and measuring them gets a HO scale diameter of 9-10 inches, which is too thin for a utility pole - they would work in N scale, though. I’ve looked at other bags of skewers here and there, but they all seem about as thin.
Ed,
Yeah, that’s a good point. I did that for several of my industries, but until the next run from Walthers, most are lukcy to have a pole line passing by.
What dti406 says about surface texture is a good point also. I could see scratching, then smoothing with sandpaper as a way to get grain without visible splinters. But no one likes to climb an old, splintery pole.
Finally, I do find the wooden skewers useful for old style telegraph/telephone lines. These are often short poles that sometimes leave the wires barely above head level. The poles are smaller diameter vs what you see for utility lines. Skewers can also make goo fence posts, if a little heavy for anything but corner posts.
By the way, the standard pole used in about 65% of all installations is the 35’ pole with about 7’ in the ground leaving the height about 28’. When we bought poles we would get out of 100 poles 65 -35’, 10 - 40’, 10 - 45’ 5 - 50’ 5-55’ and 5 - 60’. If we needed taller poles we would special order them or get them from the local utility company.
Rick J
Documents on Standards fo utility poles
Ths document has a table of allowable taper in in/ft for various materials (trees) Table 2, and horizontal load and minimum tip circumference for the various pole classes. Table 3
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf1997/wolfe97b.pdf
This is an older document: Specifies minimum circumference at top of pole, minimum circumference at 6 ft from butt of pole, depth poll is buried in ground (butt to ground line) for various lengths and classes of pole.
http://www3.alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/vol10-1931/articles/bstj10-3-514.pdf
A bit off topic but I used the skewers to make a Union 76 orange ball highway sign. No gas station just a sign 3 miles away open 24 hours and a 76 antenna ball that I bought off ebay for a few bucks.
In HO I use those long Q-tips that are on a wooden stick. Just cut off the cotton end & paint.
Brent. R u hunting Squirrels ??? I ever seen a pole like that in my Area, I will call the President of Peco!!! Just joking. Great Friggn Job !!!
A couple of bucks got me a good-sized plastic bag of Walthers utility poles off the “used” table at a local hobbyshop:
I use Atlas telegraph poles but will eventually replace them with ones from Rix:
I used the dowel-in-a-drill-goes-for-a-spin-with-sandpaper method to make this pole load for a Proto gondola:
Wayne
I’ve always liked the look of the Rix poles with the clear green crossarms. You’d paint the crossarms to match the poles but would leave the clear green insulators bare so they’d look like green glass. Unfortunately, Rix no longer offers the clear green crossarms and they currently don’t have any plain clear crossarms available. Since I have yet to install any telephone poles on my current layout, it would be nice if Rix made another run of the clear green crossarms. I’d buy a lot! (Hint, hint, Rix [;)])