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I'm getting ready to make some electrical poles for an urban industrial area. I know pole sizes are different sizes based on what they are used for and where they are located. I wanted to know what you folks are doing for power line poles in an industrial area. Well, it's not really an industrial area but a commercial urban area. There will be truck distribution and commercial buildings on the module. The next module that will connect to this will be a intermodal yard. Let me know what size guys are modeling utility pole.
There are 11 single poles and the end one has is a double pole, making 13 poles, but technically only 12 because the last 2 are connected... There are 2 different double pole set-ups in the package, but im thinking that the one on the far left is only there for packaging purposes and setting the poles up, but i could be wrong....
The taller poles that come in the Walthers kit are 4-3/4" tall
Thanks Josh for the height info now one more question. What would be a good dowel rode size for the circumference of the pole? I'm thinking it's gotta be a small one.
Thanks Josh for the height info now one more question. What would be a good dowel rode size for the circumference of the pole? I'm thinking it's gotta be a small one.
The Walthers poles are fat at the bottom and skinny at the top, that might be pretty hard to do with a dowel... lol I just measured them with my Dial Caliper and here is what I came up with for the larger size poles that come with the Walthers kit
At the bottom they are 0.185", half-way up the pole they are 0.150", and at the top they dwindle down to 0.091"
No worries, glad I could help It was actually rather quick and easy, didnt have to open a new pack of them, just reached up to the Photo Diorama to the one I left un-glued till I finish the scenery, measured it, and stuck it right back into the pre-drilled hole LOL
That's what I used 3/16. I was looking at what it looked like when I was done sanding the rode and thought chop sticks would work great. I'll be looking into that for the time savings.
Put the dowel in your electric drill chuck and hold a sanding block against it - sort of like a lathe. Use very fine grit sandpaper and taper it slowly. There will be some variation in diameters which is probably prototypical.
I like the drill idea as I spend a large part of last night sanding the dowel rods (2) by hand. Not fun!
This morning I was making breakfast and my wife had left out her morning mess and she had one item that I looked at and now know how I'm going to make the rest of the utility poles. There was a chop stick out on the counter and it was perfect (almost). It may need some sanding but not much. I'm going to check it out today since it's another snow day here is VA.
Dave
Dave I like your work. I think this is where the custom work will do best: the unusual and unique pieces. For the run of the mill, tho, the Rix, et all will save a lot of time and let you spend more time on these specials.
one comment however, I think that the taper is a bit too severe at the top; it should almost be unnoticeable. It's a minor nit, the overall effect is great.
Dave, great job on a medium duty utility pole. Most people get confused between telephone/telegraph poles and electrical/utility line poles. The Rapido poles are good examples of the former variety but don't look like utility line poles at all. The best examples of RTR utility poles are the cheap set made by Life-Like at http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/433-1621. Combined with a few of the double poles to hold larger transformers for branch circuits, you can make some pretty good looking utility pole lines at very little cost. Even the streetlights look pretty good if you don't care if they work. They can always be cut off if you just want the poles.
It was actually rather quick and easy, didnt have to open a new pack of them, just reached up to the Photo Diorama to the one I left un-glued till I finish the scenery, measured it, and stuck it right back into the pre-drilled hole LOL
