Telephone pole spacing ?

[sloan]

Would anyone happen to know the spacing for telephone poles in HO? .I sure dont wanna havta go measure it

[az2rail]

You may have to. I did a goggle search and came up with any where from 1.2 to 2 feet spacing for HO. I would agree with the differences, because it depends on location and the amount of wires on the poles.

Easy way to measure would be to measure one of yor strides, and count stride between poles you want to model.

Bruce

[Woody Elmore]

Back in the days of my youth when I used to ride trains to visit relatives, the rule was 20 poles per mile. If you sat and counted, every time you came to twenty, you went a mile.

That means there was a pole every 264 feet. In HO that would be a little over the length of three 80 foot passenger cars. Using 1/8 inch (instead of 3.5 mm) you get 33 inches.

However, in HO where everything is compressed a bit, you can space them closer. It's your railroad, pick a distance that looks right to you. I think that two feet apart wouldn't be too bad.

[Guilford Guy]

In an old Garden Railways Issue I was told 60ft.
60x12=720/87=8.275"

(I wish I had used the bases and installed them prior yo scenicking)
Those poles, although crooked are spaced 7.5-8.5" apart.

[Atlantic Central]

In the real world, depending on what is on them (telephone, power, high voltage, medium voltage, both/all, etc) utility poles are spaced anywhere from 150' to as much as 300' apart.

So in HO scale that translates to anywhere from 20" to 40". Closer is better with our generally compressed scenic elements so 24" would be a good rule of thumb.

Sheldon

[RAM]

The telephone poles were a lot closer together than your power lines.  I never thought of this
before, but it may well be that the shorter the poles the closer they need to be.  The line along the
railroads were short until you got to a road.  Then you would have a taller pole on each side of
the road.   With the railroad getting away form pole lines for signals, no more telegraph, nor
telephone line.  The lines along the railroads are just about all gone.  I guess it is better for taking
pictures, but I still miss them.

[Santa Fe buff]

The telephone poles were a lot closer together than your power lines.  I never thought of this
before, but it may well be that the shorter the poles the closer they need to be.  The line along the
railroads were short until you got to a road.  Then you would have a taller pole on each side of
the road.   With the railroad getting away form pole lines for signals, no more telegraph, nor
telephone line.  The lines along the railroads are just about all gone.  I guess it is better for taking
pictures, but I still miss them.

What about the half polls, I've seen them 15-20 feet apart! But these polls never leave the side of the tracks. Also, I would think about your area. Lines along the long highway are about GGs length. But at some ends of the lines, the polls are closer together. That is why I only model what I already know. By the way, on our trip yesterday, we saw some last year tornado damage, from the power station, the huge metal ones that look like this
http://www.freefoto.com/images/13/09/13_09_51---Pylon-and-high-voltage-power-lines_web.jpg
were either gone or bent to the ground. The wires were on the ground, but the electricity was off. And even cooler, a treeline,
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/images67/tree-line-770-thumb.jpg
was having 10 trees stripped like winter and bent over, but the ones right next to them were untouched, and there was also an overturn pickup, sad to say, a chevy, crushed to the hood, and the tailgate was crushed up to the liner. but that was very cool.
Enough to say, you should study the real life area to yours, like if your working on the lines in the country, look at them in the country for real, and so on. But keep GGs equation, that will help you a lot.

[pdlethbridge]

they always say a picture is worth a thousand words so you guys be the judge. This is next to Crystal pond south of Wakefield Mass with the Yankee heading south to Boston. The Yankee is a three car 240' train. I would say about 60' - 70' would be right along the B&M main line. There are 4, count them,  4 poles within the length of the train starting at the rear.

[pdlethbridge]

I took this picture of my layout a while back to show where the poles were

I was using this picture to give me an idea where to place them