In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to :
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Am I correct in thinking that all
> party-line subscribers were geographically close to each other (such
> as a few doors away, or across the alley?) Were they nearly or always
> on the same cable out of the central office? Or were there party line
> subscribers across town from each other? PAT]
Originally, party lines were intended to conserve wire-pairs.
As such the parties were served off the same trunk cable. Usually the same wire-pair all the way to the customer premises. It would have been possible, albeit unlikely, for the parties to be on separate 'feeder' cables to a concentration point, and shared a single wire pair only from the concentration point back to the C.O.
They didn't have to be in 'immediate' proximity to each other, they could be anywhere a 'multiple' tap on that cable pair existed.
In the 'late days' of part-line use, when the only users were those who were grandfathered in on a 'discontinued' tariff, it was _not_ uncommon to find the 'parties' in wildly different physical locations, with each on their own dedicated pair, all the way from the C.O. to the C.P.