I was thinking about getting some of Weaver's telephone poles.
Does anyone have them displayed on their layout and how do you like them.
Thanks in advance.
russ
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Yes, very nice.
I have them and have found them brittle and easily damaged. Lately I have been buying Lionel's telephone poles, and like them much better.
Our modular club uses Weaver poles, about 100 of them. They have to be installed and removed for every show. I think they stand up to reasonable handling.
Pete
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I'm currently using them and like them. I've had to reglue a crossarm or two because of my own fault, but never had one break. The nice part about the kit is you can add as many or few crossarms as you want.
Dont have any yet, but on my item "to get" list.
I had good success scratch building telephone poles using a guide written by Lex Parker. It was my introduction to scratch building.
They are very good.
From one of Norm's post
You need to order them soon.
Andrew
Forget it. The poles are sold out along with the paint.
Thanks for the update prrhorsehoecurve.
russ
There must have been a run on the last ones.
Andrew
Originally Posted by AZroads:
I had good success scratch building telephone poles using a guide written by Lex Parker. It was my introduction to scratch building.
Thanks for the info. I previously cut, painted and installed my dowels (temporarily w/o cross members) The brass nail and beads are just the idea I needed.
Originally Posted by falconservice:
There must have been a run on the last ones.
Andrew
I could not understand why they would run out of telephone poles... Sadly I just found this on Eric's trains facebook page....
Sadly, the rumors are true. I called Weaver Models today and they confirmed that they are closing their doors at the end of this month (June 2015). The closure is NOT due to bankruptcy or anything like that. The owner, Joe, is simply getting up in years and wants to retire. At this point there are no offers from anyone to take over the company so the doors are closing. I have to say that I am devastated and I actually lost sleep last night after hearing the rumor. Weaver is a great little company and their trains and paints will be sorely missed. They are the last company, to my knowledge, still making O-scale trains here in the U.S. on a semi-large scale. I really hope that someone swoops in to take over the company. If I had to the time and money I would do it in a heartbeat.
I just noticed this post, and figured I really ought to chime in here since I was the one who developed and first owned the tooling for the Weaver Line poles about 10 or 12 years ago. Joe Hayter agreed to market them as a Weaver product, and they have been a steady seller over the years. Though it was a profitable adventure, I really only pursued it because I needed them for my own layout. After a few years, I got tired of the accounting, and sold the dies to Weaver.
The reason I pursued this project was because there were no accurate models of line poles on the market in O scale at that time. There were designed right off of railroad engineering drawings, and are both accurate and typical of what was used along US railroad tracks for many years. The whole story was told in the other magazine about 10 years ago. Below is a photo of them as installed on my layout.
Anyhow, I have an idea or two about how these can be kept on the market. Can't promise anything, but I was very gratified to see them become a staple on O scale layouts (both 2 and 3 rail) and I would like to see them carry on.
One comment about the Lionel poles in response to a comment above. They are good models of utility poles seen on city streets up to about 1960, but they are not accurate for railroad line poles. I use them and like them for city street scenes, but they are a bit short and I find them to be extremely fragile. Still, they are a good addition to my urban scenes.
Thanks to all who have used the Weaver line poles over the years!
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Any news regarding those Weaver poles, Neal ?
Wasn't Scenic Express stocking these?
In any case, super thanks to Neal for bringing these about. There's nothing more 'railroady' than these types of poles. It would be amazing if the crossarms could be cast in clear and clear green. Didn't Rix do this in HO at one time?
Yes. Thanks,Neal. I really prognosticated about getting these poles and missed out. I would buy a whole bunch now if I could.
Put me on your list Neal if you should have a source.
Norm
I was stunned to see this thread come back from the dead. As you may know, Atlas bought the dies for the line poles from Weaver, but has never put them into production. People are always asking me about where they can find some, so I went back to Atlas at the York meet in April of 2018 and discussed this with owner Jarrett Haedrich. He said they were hoping to get them back on the market by the end of 2018, but that obviously never happened. I do know that the tool and die maker had a problem with their injection molding machine, but I think that has been resolved.
I will make some inquiries and see what I can find out and also again try to motivate Atlas to get these back on the market. I can certainly provide technical help, and to be honest, they don't cost all that much to produce, at least the kit version. My issue was always that I had no place to store, bag, and ship them from aside from my garage!
With reference to Norm Charbonneau's comment about molding the cross arm in clear plastic tinted green as Rix does in HO...I did inquire about this years ago when I first got the poles placed into production. The tool and die maker told me that the clear plastic they use tends to get frosted when it cools, so he advised against doing this. Subsequent to that, I did look at the Rix models, and they did look frosted to me.
Anyhow, gimme a few days to make some calls and send some e-mails and I will get back on here with what I find out.
