O Scale Telephone Poles

Greg

I made my own in case you are interested, used wood dowels, basswood, beads fitted on to straight pins (cut the heads off but wear safety glasses) then bend pins for the brackets.

I'm waiting for the Woodland Scenics telephole poles to be available. I'll take a look at them, might buy some. There picture of them on WS website. They look good.

GRAMPSTRAINS, RAY & PAULTRAINGUY, thanks a million, I'm gonna buy some poles but I had the intensions to build my own in the event that I run ought.  Ray, you've done just what I've really intended to do, and I appreciate your help.

I just got these in the mail today.  I don’t mind the handmade look and they suit my layout which is not super detailed.  Do a search for ‘miniature utility poles’ on eBay to find them.

Grampstrains posted:

Lionel has three different packs of scale phone poles. The insulators are not green but you could paint them.

The most recent offerings from Lionel do indeed have green colored insulators. these are good looking scale poles right out of the box. Offerings are  Lighted 6-37995 Assorted 3-37939 and standard 6- 37851

Here are some quick shots to give you examples:

ok, Thanks Matt for the follow up.

Once again and I truly appreciate the info, Thank you too, Ricko.

I think someone said a source for the faux green insulators, were tiny beads that they found at a Micheals craft store.  Pls put a telephone lineman on one of the poles for intriguing your visitors!   

Insulators are not just green or glass and come in many shapes and sizes:

Collecting insulators has been my main hobby since April 1958.

Weaver had made some nice ones,built up or kit. 

Hi Greg, we took some of the older Marx Poles and painted them:

If you intend to string wires on those poles, you might want to consider EZ Line.  It will help when you forget that you have poles and wires while fixing other things.

There was a guy that made really nice poles. Many different types also. Don't know it he went out of business or not but I can't find info on him. Maybe someone here knows. I bought a ton of them. Click on pictures to enlarge for a better look at his poles. Don

I’m simply an operator, Scale is a great adventure, however I’d rather spend time running those fun to run trains. I recommend Lionel’s lighted scale telephone poles. They make some that do not light up, and then some that have street lights already to wire up. Good luck, great thread. Happy Railroading 

check woodland the are coming out with pre wired poles 

Leaping Larry is right. Lionel has some great poles .Wezver had some that Atlas got the molds for but has never produced as far as I know . these were really good for all applications. Hope they come back out with these.

clem k posted:

Weaver had made some nice ones,built up or kit. 

I wonder if Lionel resurrected the Weaver poles? The photos in some of the previous posts look very similar to the Weaver poles, which were probably the most realistic.

The Weaver poles are taller

Thanks Clem, I wasn't sure if those were part of the tooling Lionel bought from Weaver.

rail posted:

clem k posted:

Weaver had made some nice ones,built up or kit. 

I wonder if Lionel resurrected the Weaver poles? The photos in some of the previous posts look very similar to the Weaver poles, which were probably the most realistic.

 

Atlas has the tooling for the Weaver pools. They keep saying they are going to re-release them....

Slugger posted:

rail posted:

clem k posted:

Weaver had made some nice ones,built up or kit. 

I wonder if Lionel resurrected the Weaver poles? The photos in some of the previous posts look very similar to the Weaver poles, which were probably the most realistic.

 

Atlas has the tooling for the Weaver pools. They keep saying they are going to re-release them....

I thought they might, but wasn't sure if the poles were USA or China.

There is another option. Use inexpensive dowels and Precision Scale brass detailed cross arms. They come in many different styles. Long, medium and short. Also "Alley" type. This would be cheaper than ready made poles. Don

Woodland Scenics just introduced a new line of utility poles.

Wife and I both are fairly confident that we purchased these telephone poles several years ago at a train show in Columbus, Ohio.  They look very similar to the poles in SCALE RAIL’s photos posted above. 

PRRMP54 posted:

Insulators are not just green or glass and come in many shapes and sizes:

Collecting insulators has been my main hobby since April 1958.

Nice insulator collection !!! To keep in the thread, I suggest people consider different colors. In general, I believe older ones are glass (think steam era) and ceramic more recent. The glass aqua and clear are the norm but others that can be had are Dark green, purple, and amber. All depends on original glass material And where they “lived”.  My unusual colors came out of high mountain regions - probably extreme temperatures and hi uv contributing to the colors. If modeling mountain roads, “step out” and paint some insulators some different color - perhaps more fitting to their environment. 
I post some of mine. 
Have some fun.
Trainbub

Hey Everyone, thanks again for all of the info, I tuned in some 3 or 4 days later and this thread is still going strong. Much appreciation for everyone participating, your knowledge, incite and expertise is what makes this hobby fun and challenging, with the intent that there is nothing that is impossible with the OGR Forum behind you when you need help. My sincere Thanks to all of you -  Marshelangelo 

GregM posted:

Wife and I both are fairly confident that we purchased these telephone poles several years ago at a train show in Columbus, Ohio.  They look very similar to the poles in SCALE RAIL’s photos posted above. 

 

Those were sold by a guy named Dave who used to sell at York. The table was in the Orange hall.  He was from Ohio and along with his mom, made great looking scale all wood poles in different varieties, single arm, dual arm and even corner poles. The wood was stained, the insulators were small glass beads that were attached with shortened pins. No plastic was used and they were realistic looking. I was fortunate that I made a buy for my entire layout needs at that time. Dave was only around for a couple of years but closed up shop about 7 years ago. Dave made a great product but IMO the business didn't bring in enough revenue to fund his York trips and make a living. Hope that someone picks upon the design.

IMO the Weaver poles looked great.  Waiting for Atlas to make a run of them!

Jim S posted:

IMO the Weaver poles looked great.  Waiting for Atlas to make a run of them!

Agree with your comment about the Weaver poles. I am sorry I did not purchase any at the time. Any idea whether or when Atlas may produce them? I think I will purchase some of the Lionel poles with the green insulators, as they look great and are not expensive.

Pat