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Vintage Telephony and Telecomms Vintage Telephones, Telephony and Telecomms Equipment |
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20th Apr 2020, 8:52 pm | #1 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 363
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Telephone Pole
Is it just me, I wonder, but might one of the unanticipated benefits of the virus restrictions be an increased propensity to observe? Pre-coronavirus, I occasionally set out for a walk in my local area – but recently, I seem to have started noticing things that I wouldn't normally notice. I think I saw a spotted flycatcher over the weekend…
But there is also this telephone pole, which I must have passed hundreds of times, without really noticing how anachronistic it is. I took a few pictures. It's in a rural area, and it got me thinking about how it ended up where it did. Would I be right in thinking the porcelain insulators would've taken uninsulated phone lines to a nearby farm? Or perhaps all the way up and down this country lane? And later, the phone lines were put underground, except here, where they had to be taken over the road? Just thought I'd ask, you know, as it made me think… Thanks to other pole-related threads on this forum I now know how to date these things. I'll try and get a date off it next time I'm up that way. Last edited by Wellington; 20th Apr 2020 at 9:12 pm. Reason: Correction! |
20th Apr 2020, 11:53 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 16,536
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Re: Telephone Pole
It certainly looks old. The number of holes below the remaining crossbars suggest it might have had rather more at some time. I wonder if the GPO/BT reused sound old poles?
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21st Apr 2020, 1:15 am | #3 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: North Somerset, UK.
Posts: 2,130
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Re: Telephone Pole
Yes the insulators would have supported bare phone wires, possibly all the way from the subscriber to the exchange. Or sometimes from the subscriber to the outskirts of town, with the rest of the route by underground cable.
The wires were sometimes hard drawn copper for unusually long routes, but more often copper covered iron wire was used. More recent wires on the same poles are often twin insulated cable, with the cores of copper covered iron. This looks like "figure of eight" bell wire, but is very stiff, hard to handle, and hard to cut or strip. (As a child I found some and tried to use it for outdoor Christmas lights. Gave up in disgust) |
21st Apr 2020, 10:12 am | #4 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Flintshire, UK.
Posts: 707
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Re: Telephone Pole
Quote:
When I was a GPO apprentice, we put up one of the last bare 'copper' routes in the Chester Telephone Area and that was in the late 1950's. However bare copper pole routes existed into the 1990's - Diabaig exchange in the far north west Highlands of Scotland was still connected to the rest of the UK network by a 5 pair 10 mile long pole route from Torridon exchange until March 1995 when Diabaig went 'digital'. The pole route was replace by three microwave links. The route was built by the Royal Engineers in the 1870's to extend the newly nationalised GPO telegraph network to Diabaig. The route climbs from sea level to over 1600t over a mountain range. Note how the base of one pole is higher than the top of the previous pole, the route was that steep. There was no road to Diabaig until the 1960's! Note also the single spindle on top of the poles which carried the original single telegraph wire (earth return). There was until the early 2000's, a 'ring type' distribution pole in Hereford with all the bare copper wires on insulators to subscribers houses still in use. Ian J Last edited by Pellseinydd; 21st Apr 2020 at 10:33 am. |
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21st Apr 2020, 10:33 am | #5 |
Octode
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Carmel, Llannerchymedd, Anglesey, UK.
Posts: 1,509
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Re: Telephone Pole
I always like to see the early movies which show the multitude of wires and insulators which abounded at the time!
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21st Apr 2020, 10:41 am | #6 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: Oxfordshire
Posts: 740
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Re: Telephone Pole
I can remember our telephone wires used to 'sing' when it was windy in the 1960's. Was this because they were bare wire?
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21st Apr 2020, 10:42 am | #7 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Flintshire, UK.
Posts: 707
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Re: Telephone Pole
Can still be found!
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21st Apr 2020, 11:37 am | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,642
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Re: Telephone Pole
There must be a wayleave issue to require the repurposing of an old pole and putting up a new one to cross a minor road/track.
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21st Apr 2020, 10:46 pm | #9 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 18,724
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Re: Telephone Pole
I saw this in Gibraltar, along with lots of other anachronisms in 2012.
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22nd Apr 2020, 2:46 am | #10 |
Hexode
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Derbyshire, UK.
Posts: 289
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Re: Telephone Pole
There should be a date carved into the pole which will give an idea how long it has been there.
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24th Apr 2020, 8:33 am | #11 |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Warsaw, Poland and Cambridge, UK
Posts: 2,679
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Re: Telephone Pole
This specimen is on the street outside our house in Warsaw. It's very unusual in this city because almost all services (electricity, phones, cable TV, gas, water, sewage and, yes, hot water and heating) are underground. This particular area was developed as a "garden village" in the 1920s and I think these poles are a legacy of that, though this one being concrete is probably more modern.
What I like is the collection of redundant ceramic insulators at the top, now just used as anchors for modern 4-core drop wires (including the one to our house) juxtaposed with the ultra-modern fibre-optic junction box half way up delivering hundreds of megabits per second straight to people's homes. I wonder what the people who installed those insulators would think? Chris
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24th Apr 2020, 9:18 am | #12 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, UK.
Posts: 63
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Re: Telephone Pole
I was apprenticed to the GPO in 1967 and left in 1993. In all that time, they were called "poles" or "telegraph poles" , never "telephone poles". I suppose it's historic, as obviously the telegraph came first and the name stuck.
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24th Apr 2020, 9:46 am | #13 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,130
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Re: Telephone Pole
Yes, even the ones carrying overhead power lines tended to be referred to as telegraph poles, whether or not they also had telephone wires.
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24th Apr 2020, 3:22 pm | #14 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,642
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Re: Telephone Pole
My Brother was BT apprentice trained. He chose the outdoor route afterwards in what he referred to as "Holes and Poles".
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24th Apr 2020, 6:43 pm | #15 | |
Hexode
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 363
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Re: Telephone Pole
Quote:
I may take a walk up there again, this weekend, and try and find a year on it. |
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24th Apr 2020, 7:41 pm | #16 | ||
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Flintshire, UK.
Posts: 707
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Re: Telephone Pole
Quote:
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29th Apr 2020, 8:28 pm | #17 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 363
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Re: Telephone Pole
Thanks for all the posts, chaps - interesting stuff.
I took another walk on Sunday and suddenly started noticing old telegraph poles all over the place! Halfway through the walk I suddenly thought to myself "I'm really enjoying this"! It helped that it was beautiful, spring morning. I got some better photos of the pole under consideration, and took a few others of other poles. Indeed, the cops rolled past at one point, and I feared someone might have dobbed me in for suspicious activity. (Do people get into trouble for photographing infrastructure in the UK? I can see how it might be worrisome). I attach said photos. The inscription on the pole appears to be "GPO 24M 64". So that would be "General Post Office; 24' Medium; 1964" yes? There was also a red 'D' plaque attached, which I understand means the pole is due for replacement. My exchange is MRMHE, in case it's of interest. Do records exist which account for the history of exchanges? |
29th Apr 2020, 9:33 pm | #18 |
Octode
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Belper Derbyshire
Posts: 1,936
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Re: Telephone Pole
Good evening,
The red D plaque means the pole has been inspected and found to be (D)ecayed and therefore earmarked for replacement at some stage. Love looking at old telephone poles and other vintage electrical utilities. Some interesting looking insulators on the poles at the Rugby radio station low power transmitter aerial feeders. Looked like big pepper pots. Most have all gone now as the aerial fields are making way for a housing development. Spent about 10 minuets last year on a walk inspecting the rating plate on an ancient CA Parsons substation transformer. Think the person watching me out of an office window must have thought I had completey lost it !! Christopher Capener
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29th Apr 2020, 9:42 pm | #19 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,345
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Re: Telephone Pole
While recently looking for a pole that I remembered seeing on a flying butress in a bridge over the Shropshire Union Canal (no longer used, but now a listed structure), I came across a web site for telegraph pole enthusiasts :
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&so...ptIG5Z5rCfMBqu It was their "Pole of the month" for February 2017. In the 1990's there used to be an electricity pylon enthusiasts web site that featured a regular "pylon of the month" photo, but that site is long gone. Last edited by emeritus; 29th Apr 2020 at 9:52 pm. |
29th Apr 2020, 9:54 pm | #20 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Telephone Pole
Quote:
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