I wanted telegraph poles strung with “wire” for a quicky diorama I was building over the holidays to show off when I returned to the history class I teach. I wanted a representation of the first transcontinental railroad, to compare and contrast with the UP line that runs behind the school grounds. The telegraph was already an accepted part of the technology in place as the rail network grew. Foam terrain would allow me to quickly build slightly undulating scenery to suggest the bare prairie. The prairie grass is Woodland Scenics by the way… Inexpensive and readily available plastic utility poles- even those with too many crossbars for an early system, could easily be clipped. Several brands are out there... Atlas telephone poles http://www.atlasrr.com/Images/Track/Trackphotos/2801.gif Atlas from Walthers Walthers Model Railroad Mall -- product information page for 150-2801 Bachmann telephone poles Bachmann Trains Online - Product Catalog Model Power from Walthers Walthers Model Railroad Mall -- product information page for 490-1310 I already had a set and a half of Atlas poles on hand. But these simple plastic poles are made to be nailed, pinned or glued down to a plain flat surface, not an uneven foam terrain. If I was taking my time and scratchbuilding utility poles, I would simply make them long enough to go into a hole drilled through the soft foam and into the plywood or homosote base under it. How could I get these poles, which are made “from the ground up” but not below, to stand up firmly enough to allow my fumble fingers to string E-Z Line telegraph wire. The E-Z-Line is great stuff and forgiving, but my fumble fingers are not… My solution was to epoxy large-head roofing nails to the base of the telegraph poles. The head was large enough to get a good grip on the base of the telegraph pole, to resist bending over, and the body of the nail could go an inch or two down into the foam and sub-base. Problem solved, and the railroad unites the growing young nation!
Nice solution, you can also use a piece of dowling, put it in vice drill out a hole slightly larger than the pole, cut the dowel, drill out the hole in the foam, place glue in hole place dowel, place pole with glue. Note the above method makes a stronger pole connection with no chance of breaking off due to the stress of the "wires" this is my recommended procedure for multiple crossarms and wires. Rob
Rob, What method can one use to add more crossarms to a pole? It seems that just glueing on additional crossarms (attached to a piece of pole) to an exising pole would not result in a very strong connection, and using a drilled out dowel would result in an unnatural looking "collar" around the pole. What to do, what to do?
Very nice looking diorama Ken. There is not a whole lot of prairie grass in Pennsylvania so I never did have to model that, but I did something very similar to my telephone poles: cut off some of the crossbars to make simpler ones and added a touch of off-green color to the insulators. I cut the plastic base off and drilled a hole up from the bottom of the pole just enough to glue a small length of piano wire in the hole. It made it easy to just stick the pole in the foam without having to cover up the base. Jim
Well for multiple heads, (using human hair for the wires aka not alot of stress) I would drill out as small as possible a hole for a tiny wire to add mechanical strength. Using the hair techique wouldn't place too much stress on the pole, and drilling out the "glass" insulators allows you to string the poles together with the hair going through the glass insulators instead of wrapped around it. The termination point will be important as it will bear the brunt of the force of the wires (aka hair) Fake wigs, Or you wife's hair extensions are a source of telephone wire. Nice thing about it they are very fine, bad thing about them, if you break em, they will have to be replaced along the entire string, Unless you can superglue them together in sections. Rob
I believe I mentioned in my original post I used E-Z Line (thart's a brand name) telephone wire. It is elastic with an extremely easy and resilient stretch. Two good things-- it is so UN-STIFF that is hangs fairly natrually looking by gravity. Only place that is not true is where I got a little SuperGlue on the E-Z Line next to the pole. Secondly, you snag it, it stretches a good way and springs back into place. Good stuff. Only slightly tedious.
quote=enwhycentral;562800]Rob, What method can one use to add more crossarms to a pole? It seems that just glueing on additional crossarms (attached to a piece of pole) to an exising pole would not result in a very strong connection, and using a drilled out dowel would result in an unnatural looking "collar" around the pole. What to do, what to do?[/quote] As a follow-up to my question quoted above, I've shown some examples of what I want to accomplish. I'd welcome any suggestions as to how this can be done. Thanx.
