Out Of Railroad Picture, More And More, Is The ‘Iconic’ Pole-line Fixture
Perspective Projection
Publisher’s note: This is a follow-on to the “Vanished…And Vanishing…Vistas” article posted here on Dec. 16, 2024. Link here: https://allabouttrains.substack.com/p/vanishedand-vanishingvistas
You’ve seen it in perspective-projection drawings. What is it? The railroad pole line. The infrastructure that carries the wires strung along rail rights of way responsible for providing to the industry a number of functions or operations.
But, on a lot of pikes, these are vanishing. And, on a number of others, pole lines have completely disappeared.
Pole lines were a fixture. But anymore? Not quite.
Some of it has to do with technological advancement. Capability that has enabled many a rail company to dispense with pole lines.
Another side of it has to do with copper wire theft. The practice must be lucrative, otherwise there would certainly not be the number of copper wire thefts that there are.
As far as my nostalgia goes, if I spotted the green-colored wires strung on the pole line in the absence of my seeing a railroad itself, I knew that there was one close by.
One location where just such a situation existed was along a portion of Interstate 40 in Maryland. The pole line came up out of the Patapsco River Canyon and, if I remember correctly, crossed over the interstate there. I remember driving in that area once and hearing the pulsating sound of diesel engines coming up from the canyon below. The high walls of the canyon around the train, no doubt, amplified that sound, making it far more pronounced than what it would have been, had the train been operating, say, in wide open flatland.
As was the case, I couldn’t see the locomotives from that vantage point, but I could sure hear their roar! What I figured was the railroad crossed from one side of the interstate to the other through a tunnel, which would explain why the pole line was routed the way it was in that area. The pole line is what clued me in to the fact that there was a railroad in relative close proximity. Just in case you’re wondering, that railroad belonged to the B&O (Baltimore & Ohio).
Sure does bring back memories. And fond ones at that!
Pole lines.
Updated: Jun. 1, 2025 at 9:31 a.m. PDT.
All material copyrighted 2025, Alan Kandel. All Rights Reserved.
The “furniture” has gone missing. Not just pole lines but often signals (replaced with cab signals), switch towers (replaced with centralized dispatching and automated electronic switches), turntables, water tanks, and coaling towers (steam to diesel), and stations (freight only, mobile agents). In short they have taken away the elements that gave railroads their charm in the name of efficiency and profits.
I thought from your title that you were going to finally explain what all those wires do. I've always wondered that...