CPR style Telegraph Poles

That's a great idea, I hadn't considered glass beads for the insulators.

 The materials cost less than $30. They have beads in white as well.

 I placed the beads on each cross arm and then dropped small amount of thin super glue to hold them in place(caution you will need steady nerves placing them on with tweezers Lol)

Al

40 per mile.....

Nifty, Al. 

Could I be so bold as to suggest that the final colours might be greys?

Cheers

Al,

FYI I have seen supports made from paper clips, bent and cut into the desired size.

Ed

I 2nd Max's advice.  I made some and painted them brown and after having them a while I regretted the color and wished I had painted them in grey tone with some dark streaks to mimic the creosote stains on the poles.

Ed

Al

I have a whole box of telephone poles,  never thought to add beads as  insulators  thank you  very much for the idea

Have you thought of adding wires like Rapido's Totally Wired telephone phones in HO? .

If you are using pine, you can dissolve steel wool in white vinegar and wipe it on. It will give you a faded silver/gray finish like old barn wood. 

 I was wondering about the colour as well. I know looking at any old poles today they are grey but I'm thinking they would be much darker back in the day(?). They would have been better maintained with recent creosote.

   I'm goin to check out more vintage pics and come up with a concensus.

   I was thinking staples as well for braces. I will string wire as well down the road.

   I'm hoping to make 20 plus of these poles.

   The time consuming part is adding the "insulators"

 Please keep the comments coming always good ideas

Al

I'm sorry to be repeating myself with stuff I've posted elsewhere, but I made some wharf piles from 1/2" Meranti dowel which I can show you.  This system might work for you.

Step one:  Hold the dowel in a vise and use a draw knife to cut some splits into it.

Step two:  Paint the dowel white.

Step three:  Wash it with black until you get the look you want.

Here are some of the stages.  I only used black and white.

Then Step 4:  Paint the bottom of the pole black.  (All paints are acrylic).

Step five:  Use isopropyl alchohol to rub away the transition area where the pole will be buried in the ground.

I hope that this has given you some ideas, Al.

Cheers

Hello Max

 Awesome work and thanx for sharing you technique. Old colour photos show the location I'm model Ling have the poles a lot darker than the crossarms usually. 

   I am goin to try your ideas on the poles like you mentioned. I have only done almost 2 poles lol, so I can change up my methods building them

Al