One of the industries to be modeled on my layout (Kansas City 1981) will be a Kansas City Power & Light supply depot. I would like some assistance in finding photos of utility poles being transported by rail (flat car or gondola) to use as a reference in modeling.
THANKS
no photos but this may help. Working for a utility in the northeast we received most of our poles via truck from the south, not what you wanted to hear. Larger poles ( 60’ + ) were shipped from the northwest via rail. Flats, bulkhead flats, gons, and 89’ trailer flats were used.
Poles were loaded with or wthout stakes in the stake pockets. Without stakes they were banded with steel bands. Some were shipped with timbers between the rows and some without. If stakes were used the stakes were banded together between every two or three rows. Sometimes stakes were used even if the poles were banded. Some were shipped with the “butts” big end all one way making the load higher on one end.
Poles over 90’ were shipped on trailer flats with a idler car. A 110’ fir pole weights about 7 tons.
Not a prototype photo, but patterned after information in either RMC or Mainline Modeler:
The gondola is from Proto2000, while the idler flat is by Walthers. The poles are dowel, tapered with a rasp, then sanded. I used fine wire to tie the stakes together.
Wayne
Pages 65 and 66 of “Burlington Northern Color Guide…” show three shots of pole loads (not necessarily utility, I suppose). The cars are all close to the old Walthers square ended bulkhead flat–the GSC Commonwealth one (that’s available off and on). I would suggest looking at photos of cars from your favorite railroads at Fallen Flags or the like. Also, you might do a google for something like “flat car loads”. Interesting topic–I’d like to do pole loads myself, someday.
Ed
Thanks for the INFO. I have an Official Railway Equipment Register for July 1981. I found that TrailerTrain had 68 85’ flats for utility pole service with reporting marks of “ZTTX”. An internet search of ZTTX found a few prototype photos. I will probably have to get some undecorated Athearn 85’ flats and modify them for this service. I have some long mill gons which could probably be used too as shown above.
THANKS
You do not need the long 85’ flats, the majority of poles used are in the 35’, 40’ and 45’ lengths. As an outside electrical contractor we normaly received 85% of our poles in these lengths. They were usually delivered in 50’ gons to the rail siding by our office.
Rick
Just saw a flatcar sitting in Austin full of thse poles on my way home from work Wednesday night. If it still at the siding, I’ll try and get an image to share tomorrow afternoon.
Crews
Just got back from travelling by rail yesterday. On the way home, we passed a freight with some utility poles. There were three bundles on a bulkhead flatcar. Two bundles were put “skinny” end to “fat” end, witht he other bundle put on top somehow. Sorry, no pictures. This was on the CN near Montreal Qc, if that helps any.
I have several 60’ (HO scale MDC) flats, which I can put a utility pole load on. I need to make the load removable; or I was thinking of having two cars with duplicate numbers and switching out the cars.
I have found a few prototype photos for reference in building the loads for the cars. I have also learned that utility poles are transported in gondolas and flats. Since my job takes me away from home for extended periods of time, I like to take model railroad projects with me to bring back to the layout. This is a future road project, but I am trying to gater all of the project materials now. If anyone has protype photos, please post the photo or link.
My next question is what size of dowel rods should I get to simulate HO scale utility poles? I would like to do some 60’ poles for the bulkhead flats and some larger transmission poles for an 85’ or 89’ flat.
I would also appreciate suggestions for a water based paint color to simulate new poles treated with creosote.
THANKS
google “utility poles”. Lots of good info.
The poles shown in the photo which I posted earlier were made from 1/4" dowel and scale-out to about 65’ in length. To make a suitable colour for new poles, you could try mostly black with a little dark brown streaked on while the black is still wet - that’s what I used for the pile of new ties shown below. Alternately, you could pre-mix black with some brown.
By the way, the article on building pole loads was in the February 1992 issue of Mainline Modeler. The one in my first photo is removeable as a unit, with the stakes.
Wayne
The flat car with poles was gone.
But I found a good image on the web which matches what I saw Wednesday.
I did see 1:1 scale “snap track” stacked on a set of rollers on the rail. I may head out on my bicycle when it cools a bit and see if I can get a shot to share.
Crews