Saturday, September 7, 2013

Telephone Poles or "Spot the Telephone Wires"

   I added a bunch of telephone poles to the layout in Proviso, Clinton and Fulton.  Wires were also added using EZ Lines from Berkshire Junction.  I used the .003 charcoal line which scales out to 1/2 inch wire.  I figured that was pretty close to most common telephone line.   I've got to say .003 inches is really, really small.  I had no difficulty working with it as it installed in a snap using fast setting CA glue. But once installed, its pretty difficult to see from normal view distances.  Depending on the background, some lines were easier to see than others.  And as you can see from the photos they don't show up much at all. 
   So, I am considering moving up to .006 which would scale out to 1 inch wire. 



8 comments:

  1. I've considered adding telephone wires to my layout. Thanks for the info. It looks great!

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  2. The poles look great! Don't forget to keep a little slack in the lines, where I can see them they look like they are strung pretty tight, or do you find the lines relax over time?

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  3. If you are trying to simulate Telephone wire on poles that go from the OC to the POT JCT, then you should look at 1.5" to 2". Typically a POT JCT will have at a min 440 wires, plus you have the 1/4" airline fly wire to hang from. If you are doing power, then you should stick with the smaller line believe it or not. You layout looks great. Bringing realism to the model makes it that more interesting and capturing.

    Keep up the good work.

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  4. Thanks for the info Will. Very helpful. Karl, the lines are elastic EZ Line which is designed to be stretched tight. Then, if I forget they are there and hit them with my hand, they will just stretch out, not break or mess up the poles and wires. Droop would be cool, but very difficult to achieve and pretty much impossible to maintain.

    Daryl

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  5. Liking the thin ones, no need to make the lines thicker in my view.

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  6. iirc from putting poles in Pat Lana's layout, cross arms alternate faces of the pole - i.e. left side - right side - left side - right side - Pat has a fantastic amount of research on how poles are installed - of course, If I had not helped him with the install, I wouldn't know - but I think yours looks great...

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