in the Kalmbach book HOW TO BUILD AND DETAIL MODEL RAILROAD SCENES the author (Lou Sassi) tells, in one chapter, how to detail telaphone poles, including what to use for scale wire. But, he just tells what to use for HO scale, and I’m in N scale. Anyone have any suggestions on what I can use?
snowey,
I believe there’s a product called E-Z wire that is very flexible and ideal for modeling telephone pole wire. I know it’s available in HO-scale. I would think that it would be available in N-scale, as well. I did a Google search but couldn’t find any info. I’m pretty sure the name is correct but not entirely.
Tom
I was intending to try using modern braided fishing line. It’s very fine gauge these days and available in smokey grey colour. Has anyone else used it?
Mike
I used black quilting thread for the main wires, and took 2 pieces of black quilting thread and 1 piece of silver quilting thread and twisted the three together to make the tri-plex. (from the poles th the houses etc.) I am running HO. Mike
The Product is EZ Line, you can order it from Berkshire Junction. www.berkshirejunction.com
They do have 2 different sizes and different colors. This is really great stuff, I have seen it and played with it in person. Will be on our layout soon.
Bre2tSco2t
There are two recent MRR Forum posts that will cover this question thoroughly…
“Realistic Telephone Wire” => http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=33814
“Power Lines” => http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=61875
EZ Line is highly recommended in both forum discussions, and with my past wire stringing experiences, this will be the way to go. Their webite has a little video you just have to see that I would call “stretching the point!”
Cliff Powers’ Magnolia Route uses EZ Line => http://magnoliaroute.com/
The HO E-Z Line will do a perfectly adequate job in representing N power or telephone lines. It is very fine…in fact, so fine that it disappears into the scenicked background a bit too readily in HO from my experience (but at the viewing distances typical on a layout, the real thing would too). The E-Z Line is great stuff. I’ve caught myself on it many times without ever having it fail.
CNJ831
This EZ Line wire, is it really wire? I used winding wire from Radio Shack for mine and acutally fed power to the building for lignts through it. Ran all the wires our of a power sub-station. Had 3-8 gang rocker switches in the top of the transformer so I could turn lights on & off in the buildings, yard lights, street lights, etc. Only problem was that the wire was blue and really showed up in photos. On by next layout, I will look for block wire.
Most lineside telegraph wire was non insulated bare copper wire. Hence the need for insulators which were mostly glass. The color of the wires after natural aging was the color of the patina on weathered copper which is a bluish green. I have never seen black insulated telegraph wires, not along the New Haven anyway. As a note each cross bar had a medallion nailed to it denoting what the wire was for or who owned it.
I’ts actually a super-stretchy polymer. I’ve only heard great things about it. Check it out!
One of my other expensive hobbies is fly fishing and fly tying. I use thread for fly tying. It comes in a ton of colors, different thicknesses (for different train scales) and is very inexpensive. I’ve never had a problem with catching on it and breaking. You also get an inexpensive tool for it called a bobbin which makes putting the line up on installed poles a breeze.
just thought id helpa bit here , til the 70s most wire was all copper ( green) there are some insulated powerlines back then that were black. most now is ACSR aluminum cover steel reenforced
hope that helps a bit
ray