how did telephone wires get from one side of the track to the other. was it with taller poles over the top or the wires fed into a terminal box then under the track to another box and back up to the poles
They are raised above the rails, high enough not to interfere with current or likely future use of the railroad. This usually involves permissions, permitting, etc.
Telephone wire, power lines, etc. went over the track on extra tall poles. There was an incident here in Arizona a few months ago where a double-stack container snagged a low hanging high tension power line and ripped it out, causing a widespread power outage. I never did see a followup news item on why the power line was so low, but it had been there for many years without incident.
thank you