Anyone make their own telegraph poles?


Secondhandmodeler

Secondhandmodeler

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I've decided that I need old telegraph poles. My layout is HO scale set in the period from 1915 to 1925. Does any one have any ideas for building fairly realistic telegraph/utility poles from common household products? I was thinking of using skewers with square tooth picks for cross beams. Any thoughts on this subject?
 
Hi Corey, a good source of lightweight material for logs, poles etc. is the dried out cat tail stem that holds the seed pod. Cat tail plants can be found around ditches and ponds bogs etc. Also this is a good time of year to collect a supply.

Picture and article about eating them and recipes. Never tried them myself but I do use the stems for modeling.
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Cattails.html

Cheers Wilis
 
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For Glass insulators I would also consider silica gel, from the small packets that are found in newly packed items.

As for fixing the poles where U haven't got foam or polyester, keep a drill at hand the size of the poles U have and some hot glue. it should work perfectly. If Hot glue not available, some silicone or white glue should work too.
 
Personally, I get the ones from Rix. They are very realistic, even to the right diagonal cut on the top of the pole. They come as a kit and you can add as many crossarms and insulators as you want. An easy way to make green glass insulators look good is to get some green glitter nail polish and put a dab on each insulator. You'll be amazed at how much they look like green glass.
 
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Thanks for the help everyone. I have little to no money to spend on hobbies right now. Even ten dollar expenditures are scrutinized by my wife. In my mind I know she's right, I just don't like to admit it. I've found that if I can make most of a project out of things around the house, she doesn't complain. I also feel better when I can make something from nothing. I know that my finished product will not look as good as store bought, but it's cheaper! Nobody see's my trains but you guys anyway. The few family members that venture into the train room give a courtesy comment. Thanks again for the help.
 
I know what you mean, Corey. I'm always looking for things to "recycle". I've trained my wife & kids not to throw anything away until I say yes or no. I've used plastic straws & coffee stir sticks to make roof vents & pipes for buildings, and both square and round toothpicks can be used for a variety of things. Always be on the lookout for stuff to be creative with.
 
Corey, given your circumstances, the bamboo skewer idea would be the way to go. Have a look at the Rix telegraph poles at their web site to get ideas about how to make realistic crossarms. The poles themselves, with the exception of that correct diagonal cut at the the tip, really don't get much attention, but the crossarms make or break how realistic the telegraph pole looks. Unfortunately, toothpicks are way out of scale for crossarms. Here's a picture of a scale crossarm and a toothpick for comparison:
CrossarmandtoothpickMedium.jpg


You can shave the toothpick down to get it closer to scale but it's tedious and, just when you get the right size, you're likely to break it. I'm not a great woodcarver and here's a picture of a scale size crossarm I shaved down from that toothpick but it broke in the middle just as I got it to the right size:
CrossarmandshavedtoothpickMedium.jpg


I guess the best compromise would be to shave the tooth pick to about half the original size. It will still be larger than scale but not as gross as using a toothpick straight out the box.

For insulators, get a box of thin straight pins. Stick the first pin in the top of the arm and then use a nippers to clip it off at what looks like the right height for an insulator mount. Use the remainder of the pin to do the same thing as you work your way down the crossarm. You should be able to get about 8 insulator mounts per straight pin.

Put a tiny glob of plastic glue on the top of each pin and let dry. While you were at Wallyworld, you have also picked up some green glitter nail polish. Shake well and apply a small glob of this to the dried glue glob. It will look very close to real green glass insulators.

Also note the "V" shaped braces on the scale crossarm. These were almost universally used to prevent the crossarm from shifting on the pole. You can use thin styrene cut to size to simulate the braces. A cheap source of thin styrene is the "For Sale" type signs at Wallyworld. You can get one for about $2 and it will provide you with all the material you need for braces.

Making your own telegraph poles is a somewhat tedious process but, when you've got more time than money, the methods I've described will provide a reasonably scale looking pole. I've seen some really nice layouts with scratch built telegraph poles that were completely out of scale and it really ruined the impression of an otherwise nice scene.
 
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Jim, thank you for a wealth of information. I really appreciate it. Maybe I'll have to come up with something else for the cross beam. What kind of glue did you say to use? Any thoughts on what height telegraph poles would have been in 1915 or so in a rural area?
 
Corey,
Good old Testor's Plastic Glue is all you need to make the globs for the insulators.

Another option for telegraph poles is the no crossarm variety. These were commonly used early in the century and on shortlines with limited telegraph traffic. They just a straight pole with an insulator drilled in at an angle near the top of pole, one on each side. There were only two lines per pole, making one circuit. These would be a lot easier to make than crossarm poles and there were still a lot around in your period on branch lines and shortlines. The railroads tended to be pretty sloppy with these installations, with the pole being little more than a tree trunk with the branches cut off and they weren't always very straight.

The height of telegraph poles varied wildly, especially early in the 20th century. There were no real standards and railroads mostly tried to get them high enough so animals or people couldn't easily reach them but not much higher. The exceptions were when the line had to cross a roadway or some other obstruction. The pole was then made as tall as needed for clearance but the line tapered up and then tapered back down again once it was past the obstruction. I've seen poles literally six feet tall to poles over 40 feet tall crossing over rivers. If I had to guess, I would say the average pole height in the early 20th century was 15-20 feet, especially for single circuit pole.
 
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I'm thinking that I may use the straight pole method. If I do that, then I'll definantly have to run the wires between them. If I use the poles with the cross beams, then I could probably get away without running the wires. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Thanks again for the help. Now I just have to see what I can come up with.
 
Say Corey,
Thought I got this off to you a day or so ago but I guess not?
I'm somewhat the same as you as I like to try and find uses for commonly found products rather than tossing them in the trash.

I'm also modeling about the same era as you, 1895 to 1920 approximately. I'm planning on using square telegraph poles myself as I remember seeing poles like that many years back. In fact if I remeber correctly they even had both lines on one side of the pole with each insulator about 18" apart and then they switched to using both sides of the pole again with the lines staggered one above the other.

I'm thinking of using what's left from the long fireplace matches as the square shaft is about 9" square so it's fairly close to being correct. I was just thinking that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to clue them in position in case one might get broken off so the lower section could be removed and what was left could be stuck back in the same hole.
[I also came up with a method for planting trees larger than 3/8" dia so they can be lifted out of their support holder as might be needed and replaced. I'll describe this idea a little later.]


I think it would look rather interesting to see the lines change every so often from both on one side to one on each side and maybe back again. As I recall the reason for the staggered height was to try amd keep the lines from comming in contact with each other in windy conditions and shorting out. I'm reminded of the early telegraph/electricty lines that ran some 17? miles to Bodie, Calif in a perfectly straight line because they thought that if they made any bends in the line the electricty would jump off the lines!

Take a look at this link for info about telegraph lines, poles, how deep they were set, their size and the material that was used etc. Unfortunately no pictures on this site. ttp://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tel/morse/morse.htm#HC

I'll try to come up with an idea for insulators, how about using pins that have a ball head to them and then glueing a small little bead onto the ball head to form a small insulator and then paint them a Jim suggested with the green nail polish? Just a thought.

Also I was thinking that if lines were strung on the poles, as I'm thinking of doing, it would sure look realistic to have the line droup or sag between poles.
 
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David, Thanks for all of your thoughts on the subject. I still havn't decided whether I'll buy poles or try to make my own. I'm thinking of building my own. I have a few small trips of styrene from a DPM kit that I didn't use. I may try to use skewers for the poles and and a little strip of styrene for the cross piece. The small braces and insulators will have to be trial and error for the correct size. I'm not too concerned about scale sizes. If it looks good to me, then it will be good enough. Let me know if you come up with any more ideas.
 
Corey,
Yes I'll be glad to let you know if I come up with anything else. Btw I have Rix products available through my supplier if I can be of any help!
 
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