What is the normal distance between telephone poles in Texas?

Skip to content

Peter Cade/The Image Bank/Getty Images

The average spacing between telephone poles is 125 feet, according to the Florida Public Service Commission. Poles can range from 20 to 100 feet tall and are generally buried at least 6 feet deep.

The most common trees used to make utility poles include Douglass Fir, Southern Pine and Western Red Cedar, according to the Florida Public Service Commission. Poles have a lifespan of 30 to 40 years.

Wood poles are 15 to 100 percent more cost-effective than fabricated poles, according to the North American Wood Pole Council. The council estimates that 130 million wooden poles are in use in North America.

MORE FROM REFERENCE.COM

Skip to content

Lindsey G/CC-BY-2.0

Telephone poles, also called utility poles, differ in their spacing when located in urban versus rural areas. Within a U.S. urban landscape, utility poles tend to be spaced 125 feet apart. In rural areas, utility poles are spaced as much as 300 feet apart.

Many factors affect the spacing of the poles. In areas of rough terrain, poles may be spaced either significantly closer to each other or significantly further from each other in order to minimize the chance of damage to the pole. This damage would require specialized electricians to travel through rough terrain in order to repair the damaged power line.

MORE FROM REFERENCE.COM

Model Railroading > Spacing between telephone poles

How many inches between poles to look realistic

Somewhere around 14-16 inches I thought was pretty close.

PT

obsessedfoamer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Somewhere around 14-16 inches I thought was pretty
> close.
>
> PT

Thanks

The first question is, what scale? 16" is 116 feet in HO, 14" is 101 which would
be just about right.

Here is an excellent talk that was given on line side details.
It includes information on telephone poles.
Bet you didn't know that cross bucks on poles are placed on opposite sides of the pole from pole to pole...!!

http://www.metronorthnmra.org/archives/Trackside%20Details.pdf

Depending on what site you look at and what the pole is holding -- in real life anything between 100 and 200 ft. However, the effect you are looking for in your/our HO scale world may require you to put them closer. The pole in front of my house only holds electric (we are the end of the run) and the end pole is about 250 ft away. The other poles on the road are usually about 180 to 190 ft apart except where the feeder line comes in crossing at right angles and then there are a couple of poles quite a but closer.

Take a look at this site --http://www.annsgarden.com/poles/poles.htm#odd -- for the arrangement of lines on the pole!

Bruce

On the subdivision I work before they took out the pole line, there were 40 poles per mile. That works out to 132' between poles.

HO

swsf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I use 85 feet for my spacing in HO scale. A common
> one foot long ruler makes it easy to mark the
> spacing, and the closer distances mean more poles,
> which helps give the illusion that the
> right-of-way is longer than it really is.

That's my recommendation, too. Placing poles a bit closer together -- especially lineside code line or telegraph poles -- makes the distances look a little greater. A friend of mine who has insisted on putting his poles scale distance apart may technically be right, but if you also consider that model railroad curves are tighter than the real thing, his poles to me look way too far apart on his curves.

40 poles to the miles is standard on many railroads. On the UP the 1/4 pole has one band, the 1/2 mile pole has two bands, the 3/4 mile pole has 3 bands, and the mile pole has 4 bands and the milepost number. As the polelines are being removed, the 1/4 mile poles are being cut off above the bands to leave them as a marker.

Ted Curphey
Cheney, WA

In Texas UP put the mile posts, 1/4. 1/2, and 3/4 markers on steel fence posts stuck in the ROW edge. Most all of the old wood poles have been cut down to the ground.

This is what I did on my pike.

It just looks like S.P. pole spacing to me,
whatever spacing I used - LOL!

Gary

PS
and yes I know the 9389 never ran with another Speed lettered SD45-T2
in real life.

Yeah, I remember seeing those one-band, two-band, and three-band poles along the old Kansas Pacific in eastern Colorado during a visit 18 years ago and figuring out what they meant; the wires and other poles were already gone there by then. I can't recall seeing anything comparable in the East, not even the little 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 signs often used out west in lieu of the striped poles, although bridges here often have stencils on them giving their milepost location to hundredths of a mile (Bridge 45.17 would be 45.17 miles from the Zero milepost).

P5r24 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is what I did on my pike.
>
> It just looks like S.P. pole spacing to me,
> whatever spacing I used - LOL!

Nice scenery. But since we're discussing pole placement, I'd say the pole next to the signal bridge in Photo #2 is not realistically placed. The signal bridge leg would be in the way of the wires. The prototypical solution would be that the road probably wouldn't be so close to the signal bridge. Alternatively, a pole or two could be positioned on the outside edge of the road, with the pole line crossing back over to trackside once there's more room between the right-of-way and the road, but then you'd have to figure out how to get a code line connection to the signal bridge.

Looks right to me. I spaced mine with a 60 foot car

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/13 08:34 by WAF.

Before anyone asks, there are

1,320' or 402.25m in a 1/4 mile
2,640' or 804.5m in a half mile
3,960' or 1,206.75m in 3/4 of a mile
5,280' or 1,609m in one mile

Just divide by your favorite modeling ratio.

Larry

The other, other thing is what kind of poles is we discussing here? If you go check out the older code/
telegraph spacing it's well under 150 feet apart. The power line poles are at much longer intervals. Now
if you model Milwaukee and are doing cat, that's a whole other kettle of trout.

rehunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The other, other thing is what kind of poles is we
> discussing here? If you go check out the older
> code/
> telegraph spacing it's well under 150 feet apart.

Most of us have been assuming that we're discussing code/telegraph/signal power poles.

Agree that they are much closer together than the poles used by public utilities for electric power distribution, telephone, etc.

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Nice scenery. But since we're discussing pole
> placement, I'd say the pole next to the signal
> bridge in Photo #2 is not realistically placed.
> The signal bridge leg would be in the way of the
> wires. The prototypical solution would be that the
> road probably wouldn't be so close to the signal
> bridge. Alternatively, a pole or two could be
> positioned on the outside edge of the road, with
> the pole line crossing back over to trackside once
> there's more room between the right-of-way and the
> road, but then you'd have to figure out how to get
> a code line connection to the signal bridge.

LOL!

Actually that signal bridge normally sits behind the camera
on a fold-down section of the layout for the rear walk-thru door
where it does not effect the wires line-of-sight.

I stuck it there temporarily to frame the Cab Hop in the shot.

Good eye though-
I should have disclaimered it like the 9389/Speed lettering shot.

Gary

Pole spacing is also determined by ice loading. The colder the climate or more possibility for ice to build up the closer together the poles are spaced for other applications. Like everything else railroads tended to overbuild their codeline. That forty per mile seamed to be what Canadian Pacific used in Northern Ontario. I remember counting poles and being amazed at how it worked mile per mile.

Jim

What is the average distance between telephone poles?

What is the maximum distance between power poles?

What is the distance between two poles?

How far apart are telephone pole in miles?