Western Union's satellite loss [Telecom]

> Did you ever utilize poles owned by street railroads or > electric railroads? Street railroad power is only 600 V, > but many electrified railroads were 11,000 V.

No. The railroad poles I was > I think most of W.U. pole lines ran along railroads, so they > might not have been where you would have encountered them.

Were those polelines actually owned and maintained by WU? Or were they owned by the railroad?

In my encounters with poles located on railroad ROW, the poles were owned and maintained by the railroad companies. I used a few of them for CATV cable crossings under permits issued by the railroad companies, but I did my best to avoid them because of the exorbitant rental fees (FCC pole-attachment regulations do not apply to railroad poles) and the bureaucratic hassle of dealing with railroad companies. In situations where I had to cross a railroad, I'd try to locate it at a road crossing where I could support it from existing power poles.

Some of the railroad poles I've seen have numerous conductors on several crossarms, so I suppose it's possible that some of those conductors might have been WU's in rented space. Example:

While we're on the subject of telegraph lines along railroads, here's a link to some photos of a replica telegraph poleline located at Golden Spike National Historic Site. Neal McLain

***** Moderator's Note *****

I'm curious about the technical part of telegraph wiring: please tell us if you know more about how the circuits worked, how far apart the repeaters stations were, etc.

Bill Horne Moderator

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Posted 5 years ago by Neal McLain in General Telecommunications Forum

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