Telegraph lines?

[Mark Plant]

Anyone got pictures of what Russian/Central Asian/Chinese telgraph poles actually looked like post WW1 - mid 1920's?  I reall;y want to get some, and this fascinating thread has got me going again!

Russian ones were mostly just a bare pole with some wires on insulators to the side. Often with a diagonal piece to stabilise it at the base (sometimes two). The number of wires differed, but I've seen up to six on a bare pole. Between towns that would be all, I believe, in almost all cases. Nice and easy to model.

Inside towns themselves the same, plus in high concentration areas one or more cross-bars with wires on insulators. I've got a picture of Tallinn at the time with a pole with three cross-bars, each with 8 wires.

My understanding is that Russia, especially western Russia, had quite a high telephone concentration for the time, inside the bigger towns. No idea of the situation out east, but bare poles between towns would seem to be what you need.

However, communication between towns seems to be largely by telegraph. My understanding, and it is not an area I know much about, is that telephones didn't have the switching to allow long distance communication.

Looking at old photos you see lots of examples. (Surprisingly not all rail lines seem to have one, but it is possible they are to the side or taking a shorter route.)

[Hammers]

Russian ones were mostly just a bare pole with some wires on insulators to the side. Often with a diagonal piece to stabilise it at the base (sometimes two). The number of wires differed, but I've seen up to six on a bare pole. Between towns that would be all, I believe, in almost all cases. Nice and easy to model.

Inside towns themselves the same, plus in high concentration areas one or more cross-bars with wires on insulators. I've got a picture of Tallinn at the time with a pole with three cross-bars, each with 8 wires.

My understanding is that Russia, especially western Russia, had quite a high telephone concentration for the time, inside the bigger towns. No idea of the situation out east, but bare poles between towns would seem to be what you need.

However, communication between towns seems to be largely by telegraph. My understanding, and it is not an area I know much about, is that telephones didn't have the switching to allow long distance communication.

Looking at old photos you see lots of examples. (Surprisingly not all rail lines seem to have one, but it is possible they are to the side or taking a shorter route.)

Thanks Mark.

[Ignatieff]

Russian ones were mostly just a bare pole with some wires on insulators to the side. Often with a diagonal piece to stabilise it at the base (sometimes two). The number of wires differed, but I've seen up to six on a bare pole. Between towns that would be all, I believe, in almost all cases. Nice and easy to model.

Inside towns themselves the same, plus in high concentration areas one or more cross-bars with wires on insulators. I've got a picture of Tallinn at the time with a pole with three cross-bars, each with 8 wires.

My understanding is that Russia, especially western Russia, had quite a high telephone concentration for the time, inside the bigger towns. No idea of the situation out east, but bare poles between towns would seem to be what you need.

However, communication between towns seems to be largely by telegraph. My understanding, and it is not an area I know much about, is that telephones didn't have the switching to allow long distance communication.

Looking at old photos you see lots of examples. (Surprisingly not all rail lines seem to have one, but it is possible they are to the side or taking a shorter route.)

Ditto.  Excellent intel as always.  The Westwind ones look quite good.  I'll give them a shot.

[Hammers]

Russian ones were mostly just a bare pole with some wires on insulators to the side. Often with a diagonal piece to stabilise it at the base (sometimes two). The number of wires differed, but I've seen up to six on a bare pole. Between towns that would be all, I believe, in almost all cases. Nice and easy to model.

Inside towns themselves the same, plus in high concentration areas one or more cross-bars with wires on insulators. I've got a picture of Tallinn at the time with a pole with three cross-bars, each with 8 wires.

My understanding is that Russia, especially western Russia, had quite a high telephone concentration for the time, inside the bigger towns. No idea of the situation out east, but bare poles between towns would seem to be what you need.

However, communication between towns seems to be largely by telegraph. My understanding, and it is not an area I know much about, is that telephones didn't have the switching to allow long distance communication.

Looking at old photos you see lots of examples. (Surprisingly not all rail lines seem to have one, but it is possible they are to the side or taking a shorter route.)

Anyone got similar intel on British/Raj telegraph poles?

[cuprum]

Here are a few photos, which show typical telegraph poles that time in Russia.

[Patrice]

Interesting photos. The poles look four or five times taller than the men, it means between 7 and 9 metres high !?

I do not know what the average height was in western Europe at that time.

Hey I must go and measure the modern telephone poles just outside my house, I believed that they are not so tall but now I am in doubt.

[Ignatieff]

Here are a few photos, which show typical telegraph poles that time in Russia.

Cuprum - thank you!

[Mark Plant]

Interesting photos. The poles look four or five times taller than the men, it means between 7 and 9 metres high !?

A lot of photos show very tall poles. These two are Estonian: one very tall, the others showing the supporting struts:

[carlos marighela]

 I side with the bare poles no wires side. Mine are plastic railway ones that fit on the same washers as troops.

Now the obvious way of wiring them and avoiding clumsy gamers would be to use copper wire and to connect them to a car battery. I suspect that, like cows, most gamers would learn to avoid them after the third or fourth shock.

[Plynkes]

If cows can learn not to touch them, then how come rural Welsh Marches kids can't? We would while away the summer holidays holding on to electric cow fences as kids, just for kicks.

We didn't have heroin and crack cocaine in our sleepy neck of the woods in those days.

[Hammers]

If cows can learn not to touch them, then how come rural Welsh Marches kids can't? We would while away the summer holidays holding on to electric cow fences as kids, just for kicks.

We didn't have heroin and crack cocaine in our sleepy neck of the woods in those days.

... so you pissed on the electric fences? That's something we only did once on the island where I spent my summers.

[Smokeyrone]

If cows can learn not to touch them, then how come rural Welsh Marches kids can't? We would while away the summer holidays holding on to electric cow fences as kids, just for kicks.

We didn't have heroin and crack cocaine in our sleepy neck of the woods in those days.

LOL!  We spent many a summer in Indiana tricking my cousin Stu into touching the electric fence.  he always fell for "race you to the fence!"

[carlos marighela]

Stu went on to work for the Bush administration and was later instrumental in planning the invasion of Iraq.

[Westfalia Chris]

... so you pissed on the electric fences? That's something we only did once on the island where I spent my summers.

Hell no! They might have been Welsh and desperate for kicks, but they were not stupid.

At least I hope so.

[carlos marighela]

If cows can learn not to touch them, then how come rural Welsh Marches kids can't? We would while away the summer holidays holding on to electric cow fences as kids, just for kicks.

We didn't have heroin and crack cocaine in our sleepy neck of the woods in those days.

Perhaps the sight of sheep on the other side of the fence was just too strong an attraction to resist? Idle speculation on my part, I'll admit.