Telephone Pole "Wire"

@firsttimer posted:

What would you recommend to use as telephone pole "wire?'  I have ten telephone poles to install and used to have an elastic green-colored string for them but can't find it now.  Suggestions?

Scenic Express EZ1006 Elastic Telegraph/Telephone utility wire.

I use EZ-Line Fine.  It has a s-t-r-e-t--c-h to it.  Comes in black.  www.berkshirejunction.com

Fishing line

@ToledoEd posted:

I use EZ-Line Fine.  It has a s-t-r-e-t--c-h to it.  Comes in black.  www.berkshirejunction.com

From that website:

The black color in fine size does not show up well (actually, it can almost disappear) against a dark background such as ground cover, trees, or towns. We demonstrate this on the diorama that we use at shows and many customers choose the green (which has just a hint of color) or the white which shows up more.

Did you find that as well?  Or doesn't it really matter?

Thanks,

John

I like elastic thread, it stays reasonably taunt.

I too use EZ line as well.   I used the green color. Shows up just fine.  This product has lots of stretch!  

I used lots of EZ Line but found one by one, the threads in various spots would break.  After a couple of years of spot gluing the broken areas or adding new EZ Line, I decided enough is enough.  I bought a spool of very fine green polyester thread and will be replacing all of it.  The line is about 30 feet long and with 12 wires, that is a lot of restringing

You know, in most cases, there are few "telephone poles" - they are almost all "power poles", set by an electric utility, which telephone companies are allowed to use for their lines also.

We all hear "phone poles" - but they are usually not.

Once upon a time, they did usually carry teleGRAPH lines.

Great suggestions all and thank you!  BTW, Woodland Scenics has a complete pre-wired power line setup with poles and transformers.

@D500 posted:

You know, in most cases, there are few "telephone poles" - they are almost all "power poles", set by an electric utility, which telephone companies are allowed to use for their lines also.

We all hear "phone poles" - but they are usually not.

In my area there is such a thing called "telephone maintenance" such that the phone company back in the day (Bell probably), set the pole and was responsible for its upkeep, even if it had power lines on it.  Verizon is now responsible for those poles.

@Craftech posted:

From that website:

The black color in fine size does not show up well (actually, it can almost disappear) against a dark background such as ground cover, trees, or towns.

I agree completely with avoiding black unless you happen to be modelling a winter scene, in which case the black would show up against the snow.

My EZ line has survived some major stretches with my errant activities and it immediately goes back to its original tautness. No trouble with breaking at all after some 2 years. I think I read somewhere that you should avoid direct sunlight on it. Perhaps the UV radiation causes it to become brittle and therefore may account for the breaks that @PeterA reported.

Bob

@Craftech posted:

From that website:

The black color in fine size does not show up well (actually, it can almost disappear) against a dark background such as ground cover, trees, or towns. We demonstrate this on the diorama that we use at shows and many customers choose the green (which has just a hint of color) or the white which shows up more.

Did you find that as well?  Or doesn't it really matter?

Thanks,

John

Didn’t matter to me.

I had some old CAT5 wire, striped the 4 pairs apart and then striped the solid brown wire. It might be tad bit big but it is 24 AWG wire. We then ran it to building and structures to actually power the lights inside. The stripping process is a bit tedious but it looked good when we were done.

@Farmall-Joe posted:

In my area there is such a thing called "telephone maintenance" such that the phone company back in the day (Bell probably), set the pole and was responsible for its upkeep, even if it had power lines on it.  Verizon is now responsible for those poles.

Same here, it is Verizon. They used to have this weird grove of telephone poles of off Route 206 in central NJ, that must have been where they tested them for weather or something (imagine an orchard of telephone poles!). These days the poles have the power lines on them still, plus all kinds of fiber for Verizon (they took out the copper telephone wires a long time ago) and for the local able company.

My EZ line has survived some major stretches with my errant activities and it immediately goes back to its original tautness. No trouble with breaking at all after some 2 years. I think I read somewhere that you should avoid direct sunlight on it. Perhaps the UV radiation causes it to become brittle and therefore may account for the breaks that @PeterA reported.

Bob O is correct, the affected line is along a wall with windows and gets afternoon sunlight.  The portions which do not receive the light are fine

I used some very light gauge copper wire I picked up at a garage sale. I got 2 rolls 24 ga. and 28ga. I wasn’t able to get it taught enough so I will be trying again. I’m hoping to use it to send low voltage power from one end of the layout to the other. Here are a few photos.
Dan

I have been using phosphor bronze wire. It comes in 36" lengths from Tichy Train group, is easily paintable, and is very easy to get a realistic sag between poles.  Bend the ends in a small "u" with a short free leg to hook onto the insulators. If you bang into it, it just falls off and can easily be put back.

The upper set of wires, between the high tension towers, was done this way:

EZ Line. Haven't had any issues after many years of use. Lots of options out there.

I always used silver sewing thread.

I purchased the Woodland scenic pole kits.in different crossbar types Wire is black nylon and already attached. You lay out poles and secure to the base with pilot holes.

For those modeling pre and post war and wish to accurately model pole configurations, there are several 1920ish telegraph/pole line construction books available on Google Books. Other modern era books seem to be available as well.  Just click on the Section hyperlinks once the page comes up. Lots of good diagrams.  https://books.google.com/books...html?id=38M3AAAAIAAJ

Another one is specific for RR construction (State of CA), 1922.  Its a bit more involved text wise but there are diagrams starting at page 128. Rules for Overhead Line Construction 1922

~Joe

Growing up on the NY&LB there were still poles along the right of way but by the early 80's were out of service that originally were used for telegraph, telephone, and signal control.  I collected many a glass insulator off those poles when they were taken down.  While they were still up the wire was something like #8 bare solid copper conductors that had turned into a nice green patina.  While I have not done poles in O scale, I did use green string on my HO layout in high school and it was quite convincing.

Painting the insulators a mixture of green and white to replicate the various styles of glass insulators also added to the realism.  For those that are really interested the type and style of insulator varied by region and use.  Aqua-green and clear are far and away the most common colors, but others exist.  Here is a resource for the glass insulator manufacturers:  Insulator Manufacturers

In my collection I have colors including olive green, pure green, aqua-blue/green, purple, carnival glass, brown, amber, and light yellow glass.  Blue was also found, but is considered rare, and finally red is theorized to exist, but according to most collecting guides there have been none found.