In the 1940s and before: Were line poles and street lights along residential or rural roads generally separate, or were they ever on the same pole? Thanks.
Tom
When I was a child, the street lights were hung on the same pole as the power lines and telephone service.
I suppose the question would need some clarification. How would you define “rural” and “residential”, pre-1940s?
Myself not being a historian, or very old, I would imagine street lights were only a thing of cities and very large towns.
That being said, what specifically are you trying to model?
“Generally” speaking, they could be either way. On my street (in the city of Oakland CA), there are some old abandoned street lights spaced very far apart that were separate. The current ones are the typical sodium vapor lights with one on pretty much every utility pole. So, in residential areas you certainly could see them separate. But I suspect they also did the 1940 version of the light-on-the-utility-pole. The further out you got in the “sticks”, the less likely you’d have any street lights at all. In rural areas, I doubt you’d see any. You generally don’t see any now on rural roads. BUT, at or near intersections and near residences, dangerous curves (maybe), and commercial areas, I expect you’d also see the light-on-the-pole.
Ed
Tom:
I’m old enough that my memories of the 1940’s and 50s are vague. However, I just looked through a couple of streetcar books in my collection. (One is “Streetcar Scenes of the 1950s in Color” (Leroy O. King, Jr./Morning Sun), and I see many pictures with lights on power poles and on their own poles.
I think you are very safe to do both, and I would say, based on the photos from my home town, that the older neighborhoods would be more likely to have lights on power poles. (Perhaps both issues of space and relative cost.)
Chuck
This pages describe much more than street lights on poles. However, the information is from 2002. May be it is of use anyway.
Take a gander at Dave’s Electric Railroads highlighting apx. 100 USA traction & interurban systems. Traction was all about electric service delivery, and; plenty of telephone & power poles abound in these pictures from roughly circa 1940 - 1970.
Thanks everyone for your answers so far. [:)]
Brian, to better clarify the reason for the question: I’m modeling a small rural town in the early 40s where a NYC freight station and servicing track is located. There is one main road running through town where there is a small diner and grocery/gas station, as well as a couple of company houses not too far from the freight station. There is also a slightly smaller two-lane road that runs perpendicularly into the main road, across from where the diner is located.
Since the freight station is fairly good size and receives a decent amount of traffic (even though it’s only a single track route), I thought a few street lights along the main drag would be appropriate. (Perhaps every other pole line?) Here’s a older diagram of the layout to give you a better idea what I’m trying to describe above:
The garage will be moved to another location on the layout and two company house will sit in its place. The diner is missing but is essentially across the street from (N of) the grocery/gas station. Light poles would be isolated inside the single-track loop; along the main road and along the smaller 2-lane road near where it intersects with the main road,
I hope that makes things a little clearer. Thanks again for the help…
Tom
Here’s another website - “Streetlight Nuts of America” - which has links to many more:
http://streetlights.tripod.com/litenut.htm
This site is mainly devoted to New York City and surrounding aurban areas - which may not be all that helpful for your purpose, though.
Also, there were streetlights that were merely hung from wires that crossed the street between 2 poles - they did not have a bracket or ‘arm’ for support. Typically they had a green ‘Chinaman’s hat’ type of shade/ cover/ reflector, and a clear incandescent bulb underneath.
Here in Pennsylvania, the reason most streetlights are on utility poles is that until maybe 10 years ago, the streetlights were owned and maintained by the utility company, so it would make sense to put the lights on poles that are already there for electric transmission and distribution purposes. Typically the streetlights were and are installed only upon request of a municipality or adjacent landowner, which is then billed a flat fee per year for them adn the electric they use - currently around $150 to
Reinhard,
Even though most of it pertains to modern utilities, that is one terrific web site! [tup] Thanks for the link! [:)]
Tom
In that time frame the street lights were in many cases wired in series like old xmas tree lights. The lamps were rated by current, 6.6 amps or 10 amps. Voltage was about 35 volts. The supply transformer regulated the current as the lamps burned out. The lamp socket contained two metal arms seperated by a paper disc. When the lamp burned out the high voltage across the socket burned the paper disc out and shorted that socket out and completed the circuit. Circuits had up to 200 lamps and at 35 volts each the end open circuit voltage could be as hight as 7000 volts, more than enough to burn the paper disc.
Tom,
I think the only streetlighting there would be would be for the intersection on the right, either as the light-on-a-wire in the middle of the intersection (as Paul mentioned ), or as one or two pole mounted lamps right at the intersection. I really don’t think there would be any other “public” lighting. The other intersection is a dead end–no way it would get lighting. As far as the various buildings, the owners could/would light the streetside area at their own cost and discretion. I doubt they would be allowed to hang their own lights on utility company poles.
Ed
What Tom said above ! Thanks much - that’s ample ‘payback’ for adding in my 2 cents’ worth on this. And some of us might wonder if we’re too obsessed by industrial stuff like railroads . . . [:-^]
Note that a little below the middle of that webpage - UTILITY POLES at http://annsgarden.com/poles/poles.htm#com - are about 4 paragraphs and a half-dozen photos under the heading NON-JOINT POLES at http://annsgarden.com/poles/poles.htm#njp , and then a little further down at ‘‘A Railroad Pole’’.
Thanks again.