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  • telephone poles on Erie/EL

  • Discussion relating to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the Erie, and the resulting 1960 merger creating the Erie Lackawanna. Visit the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society at http://www.erielackhs.org/.
Discussion relating to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the Erie, and the resulting 1960 merger creating the Erie Lackawanna. Visit the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society at http://www.erielackhs.org/.

Moderator: blockline4180

 #1421394  by el3625
 
I am getting ready to set poles on my layout and cannot find anywhere how many feet back from the tracks and how many feet between poles were on the right of way. I am modeling the EL from about Meadville in Northwest PA to Jamestown NY. I have found all of the specks on crossarms for poles and even what size hole to drill and spacing between insulators, but not any ROW specks. Does anyone know what these specks might be? Help would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Bruce
 #1421422  by TrainDetainer
 
I don't have Erie drawings, but when I was training an old head told me, for reference when switching, the poles were set two car lengths apart (when cars were 36'/40'), so about 76-80 feet apart. It seemed to work out about right when I used it as such - a bit of a PIA having to translate to 50 car lengths used as standard nowadays but it worked. As for distance from track, typical ROW in NY is one chain wide (66') and usually they were out toward the edge of that whenever practicable, but topography dictates in a lot of places. It seems like there are quite a few places where the Erie ROW was wider (particularly the Buffalo division), probably 100', with the pole line out in the edge of swamps in places. Between Hornell and Olean it seemed like one chain with poles at the edge. Also, where there's high fills, the ROW usually widens to encompass the whole width of the fill, and pole line often follows the bottom edge of the fill, sometimes so much you're looking down at the top of the poles from the track/cab.
 #1422265  by el3625
 
How did the wires get across bridges that were 100' or longer? Was there brackets on the bridges to hold poles or was there just crossarms sticking out the sides of bridges? Anyone have any pictures of bridges with possible wires on them?

Bruce
 #1422409  by charlie6017
 
el3625 wrote:How did the wires get across bridges that were 100' or longer? Was there brackets on the bridges to hold poles or was there just crossarms sticking out the sides of bridges? Anyone have any pictures of bridges with possible wires on them?

Bruce
You are correct Bruce, there are brackets on the bridges. This isn't an Erie/EL bridge, but here's a pic of the Lehigh
Valley bridge over the Genesee River near Rush, NY that shows how the line-side wires were attached. I assume
many railroads did it this way or close to it.

Charlie