Stringing Utility Pole Wiring

[Greg@mnrr]

Forum:

I'm almost the point of being ready to string Berkshire Junction's utility lines on my layout's utility poles. The electrical portion of the pole will have four wires strung and the telephone lines only two.

Has anyone on the Forum used Berkshire Junction's utility line and do you apply glue to each and everyone of the poles insulators? Can I just glue the line to every other insulator by wrapping the line around the insulator that's not glued?

Any words of advice or wisdom?

Thanks.

Greg

 

[montanan]

Check with David, LASM. He strung power lines on his layout. They look great. See what he used.

 

[josephbw]

Back in the day I used to glue the lines to both poles on the ends, then wrap one turn around the insulators on the middle poles. That way I could adjust the poles to be plumb by simply applying gentle pressure to the center poles until they were vertical. If you want to then glue the middle pole lines you won't have to readjust them. But if you don't glue the middle pole lines and bump one of the middle poles, you won't hurt anything, just readjust the offending pole.

 

[montanan]

Here's a photo of what David did on his layout. Looks great. Don't know if I would try it. I would probably drag my hand through a scene and rip everything out.

He probably has a lot more patience than I do too.

 

[logandsawman]

Here I am. I used a small dab of gorilla glue to connect the lines to the insulators.

First I carefully draped one line over one pole crossarm.. Then I put a small dab on the side of the insulator. Then I touched the line to the glue and held it for about ten seconds (using Gorilla CA Glue).

Then I waited about 10 minutes or so to give the glue time to set.

Then I draped it over all the crossarms in the straight section ( up to 4 or 5) and affixed it to the last pole in the line and glued it there. I tried to get some sag in the lines.

After the two ends were dry I glued the intermediate ones.

I hope this helps or applies to your situation, if not please ask more questions.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Forum:

Thanks for the advice everyone...Chet, David's pole wiring goods great. I saw a local layout who owner installed the pole wires and it really added more realism to the layout.

Don't think I'll add drop wires to the buildings, even with the few buildings I have on the layout. Worried a bit that the wires will be dust collectors, but will proceed anyway.

Greg

 

[montanan]

David's post really had me wondering and when you asked, he was the first to come to mind. Good luck and post some pictures.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Chet:

I like David's gray coloring of the utility poles. They look natural. Mine are railroad brown. May have to think about changing the color but stringing the wire.

Greg

 

[logandsawman]

Hey Greg, maybe you didn't know that LASM is David. The post above is how the lines were strung in the photos Chet attached.

I used light brown acrylic paint and regular brown on the bottom. I added a little water to the paint and a drop of India Ink for the poles.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

David:

I should of remembered that LASM is David. Its been one of those days in the brain department.

But, anyway, I really like the color of your poles and since I posted last, I took a drive and looked at utility poles in the area and there is a great variation in color from pole to pole and area to area.

Greg

 

[goscrewyourselves]

Check with David, LASM. He strung power lines on his layout. They look great. See what he used.

I would second that advice BUT would also apply a little glue to each pole rather than try wrapping wire around the insulators. As sure as eggs, the wrapped wire will "un wrap" sooner or later.

 

[jfb]

how about using black super thin wire it is what I will use for my lines and I have seen it used at a few shows it looks great. I first saw this in Kansas city and there club has a pretty good layout that is impressive and they showed me a few of there tricks when we tossed ideas around. the cost is also pretty low around 9 bucks at menards for 45 feet.

 

[logandsawman]

I tried two different types of material. I used regular thread treated with water/glue mixture and it did not hang as well as the ez line commercial product.

I purchased the white ez line the wide one and after it was strung ended up painting it black.

I did not twist it around the insulators just touched it to the drop of glue. I tried both Hobby Tac from Woodland Scenics and also the Gorilla CA glue and the Gorilla worked best because made a smaller build up.

Here is how it looked using the ez line, this is how I started. The wires are just laying loose and are attached at the end on top of the hill and the end by the camera.

As said, I painted the string black because I thought it was more realistic:



Here is another shot of the instillation. On the nearest pole you can see the top left wire is waiting to be glued but the other spots have been just glued to the side of the insulator.



In this photo I used black thread which was treated with glue water mixture and hung with a weight to dry then applied to the insulators. Also, Hobby Tac was used to affix to insulators.

You can see the wires have been accumulating dust. Also, they look more "wavy". Also, the hobby tac kind of built up on the poles.




As far as all the poles looking different in real life, I fully agree.

 

[Aerojet]

Back in the 70's I strung magnetic wire on the poles and ran it to all buildings. This is how I got lights in all buildings. It worked, looked good, but when it was time to move anything it was a mess. Today I run everything underground. -- To use this method, get a reel of #30 magnetic wire, and estimate how much you will need from pole to pole and then from building to building. Cut the wire in sections as it goes up, and solder it as you go with a 25 watt iron. Just a small dab of solder will work. Two # 56 holes in the building brought the power in. AND like that you have it wired. BUT LIKE I said, working around the layout or moving anything is a nightmare in this case....

The Aerojet