Pole spacing along the right of way

[Bfagan]

What would be the spacing in inches between poles  along the right of way?

[Hyperion]

Figure 250-300ft along a right of way.  So figure 18-22" or so on a N-scale layout.

That's often further than many people actually place them on a layout simply because you wouldn't get very many poles on your average layout and it might actually look more wrong to make it 'right' than it would to place them closer together.  A little selective compression might look better and give the impression of a larger distance rather than having the entire length of your layout having just 4 poles on it.

Urban environments often have poles placed much closer together anyways, which only contributes to the issue of having it look odd to have them so far apart simply because most people see far more poles in the urban environment which tend to be much closer together.

Long and short -- put them whatever distance looks good to you in your particular situation.

[wcfn100]

On my drives through the mid-west, I typically count 40 poles per mile which works out to be 9.9".

Jason

[GP38-2freak]

Mine are placed 6" apart, about 80-90 scale feet, along the tracks, I use the ones made by Atlas

[Pomperaugrr]

I installed telephone poles years ago.  They are generally placed 100' to 125' feet apart, depending upon the load in my area.

Eric

[wazzou]

On the Northern Pacific Branch-line I model, I have documentation in the form of NP Telegraph Pole and Wiring diagrams, for that branch, that say the poles were 20' in length and spaced between 35 and 37 per mile.

That matches Jason's research findings pretty closely.

[mark dance]

The Employee Timetable for.the subdivisions I model - CPR in western Canada - specify 40 poles.per mile.

md

[w neal]

Per advice, I placed mine 100' to 110' apart. Oh golly, did I put them too close?

[Hyperion]

Probably a big difference in eras.

I wouldn't doubt that back in the day when they were fairly small and spindly, that they were pretty close together.  Ones today though are quite a bit further apart.

[rogergperkins]

distance between may be era specific.   I used about 8 inches. 
Try them to see what looks good to you.

[nkalanaga]

I was once told, by a person who did NOT work for the UP, and may not have known what he was talking about, that the UP's poles were 120 feet apart, which would be 44 per mile.  Again, very similar to others responses.   The UP line through Wallula Gap, on the Columbia River, had the half and quarter mile points between mileposts painted on the poles in the late 60s and early 70s.  Those poles were about 120 feet apart, but the line was almost entirely on curves.  Longer spacing may have taken the wires out of the right of way.

Power poles may be farther apart, but telegraph/signal line poles were fairly short, and the wires would sag too far in warm weather if the spacing was any greater.

[eja]

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that on some ROW the poles were spaced so that the engineer could count one per second while traveling at the maximum speed for the area.   So if it was 6o mph they would have been 88 feet apart;  90 mph would be 132 feet apart.

Makes sense but please don't ask where I read it !

eja

[rogergperkins]

Back to my favorite n-scale modelling reference, Clinchfield. Odegard recommended 80 scale feet between telephone poles, i.e. about every 6 inches.

[C855B]

> Odegard recommended 80 scale feet...

Based on my various readings, this was "technically" too short vs. most prototype practice, but was done intentionally as a modeler's device - a compression to fool the eye. Nkalanaga's "120 feet for UP" is something I remember reading elsewhere (UPHS article?), as are the mentions of counting poles to estimate distances for train handling.

While the wires are long gone, UP still keeps their 1-, 1/4-, 1/2- and 3/4-mile poles in many parts of the system, with the tops cut off to just above the stripes/mile marker. The system is milepost, 1 stripe, 2 stripes, 3 stripes.

[Philip H]

We stopped in South Bend IN today for lunch with my bro in law and driving out by ND we saw an old track with new power pOles spaced at 75 or so feet.