Vintage

Firstly, my humble apologies for the wretched amount of time between this post and the previous.  Due to circumstances beyond my control I have had to contend myself with glimpses of roadside poles as I hurried about the country in vague panic during some familial distress.  Alas, I could not find the time to  blather on about them to our eager readership.

This post, though, I could put off no longer.  You see, we at the Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society have always enjoyed our regular correspondence with Scottish Borders representative, Lord of the Northern Poles, aka Kev Currie. He is an adroit connoisseur, cataloguer and photographer of vintage telegraph poles and his images are among the finest.  This month the photos he has sent us almost made me weep with a sort of nostalgic joy.  It was either that or the wince-making bank statement I came home to.  You decide… In Kev’s own words :

Lord of the Northern Poles checking in with some nice photos from my latest foray down into deepest darkest Norfolk!
We came across these awesome poles with fancy hats on top! and the insulators look like the pole is wearing a crown – all very majestic – Also your members may also like to know that on my return journey we took a diversion over the A68 to get back into Scotland trying to avoid the customs post, and what a treat that was and should be included in your next book – Incredible Pole spotting routes in the UK vol 2
The A68 from the A1 takes a very scenic route over the hills and up into Scotland, but the best part of all is that there is a plethora of weird and wonderful telegraph poles to drool over from metal ones in various colours and stages of deterioration to wooden ones with hats on! and some with cross bars, some with street lights attached! it was like well it was amazing! sadly i had to drive this section so no photos, but I will return to take many many photos!

Seasons greetings to you and yours

Kev – Lord of the Northern Poles

With its finial and sceptred crown that last pole is one of the finest I have ever set eyes upon. And when I get a moment from my immediate mayhem I shall invest it as such on these very pages.

Actually, you may also like to know, and I hope that I’m not breaking a confidence here, but Kev’s missus is actually called Lady of the Northern Poles.  You couldn’t make it up.

The aesthetic appeal of telegraph poles is universal it would seem.  This week I received an interestingly attachment- adorned email from Canadian Society member Paul Fisher (#0546).  And you can just tell from his words that Paul “gets” telegraph poles.

…I am glad to know that this society exists – I am not alone with my admiration for old telegraph poles.

   I have been driving back and forth from Vancouver BC to the interior of BC to visit an old log cabin for summer fun. Along the way I drive past many kilometres of railroad track, much of it still with the original telegraph poles running alongside.  Most of the wires from the poles are missing or just dangling along the ground. There are many different coloured glass insulators across the crossbars of the poles (clear glass, blue glass, brown glass, ceramic, etc..).

   I have attached two photos… The first one I think is a great look – there are missing insulators, cut wires and broken crossbars, but the pole still holds strong.

   The second photo has an interesting red box along the lower crossmember. I was told by the person who was taking care of this site that this was the pole that the train engineer would stop at, and connect his telegraph (using the big black cable you can see coming down from the pole). From here he would signal back to the train controller to update them of their position and receive further instructions.

   Both photos were taken at a historic location in BC where the last spike of the Canadian Pacific railway was driven – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Spike_(Canadian_Pacific_Railway)

There were no markings on either of the old poles. I would guess that they were installed at the time that the railway was installed, so late 1800s.

I hope you like them.
Paul

And so to continue our sequence on ye olde poles – we seem to keep uncovering ever more ancient ones. Very special thanks to Gene Kingsley who sent us this photo of a pole that is presently 105 years old and still standing at Spalding, Lincolnshire.  Gene reckons this pole is not long for this world because it has a “D” label on it.  But I know of poles, still standing, that have been labelled thus for years so it could be around for a while yet.

www.bbc.co.uk

Surely though, it’s going to be hard to beat the pole which BT Openreach recently donated to the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall.  This pole was still going strong despite having been in active service since 1894. The only reason it was taken down was because the markings used by BT to check the pole have been weathered away.  However, the date of 1894 is still clearly visible.  Making this 119 year old beauty the oldest telegraph pole in the UK. 

Unless you know different of course.

For something arguably as humdrum as a telegraph pole and the society celebrating the appreciation thereof, we don’t half receive a lot of correspondence about them.  Much of it pertains to general knowledge, Trivial Pursuit ^(TM) type questions such as “How many are there?” And “Which one is the oldest?”.  The answer to question 1 can be found here and here. We’ve started to look into question 2.

Lord of the Northern Poles, Kev Currie (#0530), was on his way home from Ikea in Edinburgh a few yesterdays ago, driving down to the Scottish Borders whereupon he found a line of 46 poles marked for removal.  This is one of them.  “Marked for removal”?  That sounds like a euphemism to me…

Where’s grandad gone?”

“He’s gone upstairs, son, now shut up and put some more of his stuff in the skip.”

Kev’s online photo archive makes for very interesting browsing for we telegraph pole afficionados. Herewith my formal request to be able to post more up on here.  Particularly the “test” pole.  Can I Kev?  Please?

We’ve had a letter this week for Norma Warren from Esperance in Western Australia.

We have 14 iron poles made by Buller Ltd U.K. which we are using in our local reserve, as they are part of the history of this town.

They are the original poles used to link Adelaide to the west. The line came through Ceduna, Eucla, Esperance and onto Albany in Western Australia. 

Do you have any information on when and where these were made and sent to Australia?

We would love to find out more about them but I am not sure where or how to get started. Please can you help?
regards,
Norma Warren,
Esperance Western Australia

We have, in recent days, been in correspondence with a certain Mr Adrian Trainsett Esq.  Whereupon said correspondent did furnish us with the first, of what he promised would be many, “magic lantern images”.  Notwithstanding the image owner having to come to terms with the vagaries of modern internetular communication, we took immeasurable delight in receiving the fine image you see at right and the following few words…

I hope I have attached to this marvellous method of communication, a magic lantern image of a railway telegraph pole on the former North Staffs Railway at Higher Poynton, Cheshire.
This magnificent pole has extra “irons” on it. I believe to allow some wires to cross the railway and continue their way to the junction with the LNWR.

I intend to submit more for your perusal.

Yours
Adrian Trainsett Esq.

Whilst we are grateful to Mr Trainsett for his kind submission, and look forward to subsequent tenderings… him having such an interesting surname and this being such a small world I can’t help wonder if he knows my old school friend, Brian Scalextric?

Now here’s something to warm your cockles on this wet and wintry August day. The first three of these poles I am familiar with as they are from the A543 Denbigh to Pentrefoelas moors road.  They were kindly sent in by regular reader, Welsh Highland Railway volunteer, TPAS member #0449 and all-round good egg, Malcolm Hindes:

Along the fast stretch between Glanygors and Bylchau is a long lonely row of armless poles, nearly all with top-mounted double spindles (the type I usually refer to as “antlers”), some still with insulators.

However the real fun comes further east. Dropping down from Bylchau is a run of good bog-standard 2-arm poles, mostly in excellent condition and complete with insulators. My first photo is of one of these, with a lovely strut, near the bottom of the hill at map ref. SJ 001642, about 3 miles from Denbigh.

The next pole down (second shot) has crossarms at right angles for a spur up a side road (which I suspect is the old road), and alongside that same side road is a real beauty, crossarms at right angles again, double-J spindles, antlers and everything but the kitchen sink.

Ever true to his word, Malcolm Hindes (#0449) has sent in some photos of the pole route he’s helping to restore along the Welsh Highland Railway line at Porthmadog*, in Gwynedd, N. Wales.

The first (and second) photo is of an ex-GWR pole which is now Pole #1 along the route between Gelert’s Farm and Penymount.  The existence of which we first alluded to back in February.

The route is in course of reconstruction following dismantling for construction of the Porthmadog Bypass (failing which the old Pole 5 would have been sticking up through the road surface!), so it is not yet fully equipped.
 
This pole was the first one acquired by the present-day Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. When the Cambrian Coast line was converted to Radio Tokenless Block working, Porthmadog Signal Box was demolished and the pole route felled.

One pole was left conveniently close to the Gelert’s Farm access crossing and found itself collected very late one Saturday evening by a group returning from “The Ship ” (Y Llong). In the cold light of day the following morning it was promptly erected at the trackside and has been in place ever since. Most of the crossarms are original and we still have examples of insulators embossed GWR or BR(W).

Malcolm has also sent us a picture of Pole #2 which he believes to be ex-Leeds Corporation Electricity Department and which, he says, was recovered years ago by Peter Lowe of the Abbey Light Railway. They have given it offset cross-arms due to the close proximity of a signal.

These poles are clearly visible when traversing the all-new and all-singing Porthmadog bypass which you can see raised in the background.  Also captured behind pole #2 in this exquisitely framed photo is the Welsh Matterhorn, aka Cnicht, up which yours truly has many times experienced the joys of vertigo.

* Porthmadog; surely the new Mecca for railway enthusiasts, what with the Ffestiniog Railway, Welsh Highland and of course the Cambrian Coast Line.

At 8’x3’x3’ and 15cwt you’d be forgiven for thinking that this K6 telephone kiosk was the star of this photo.  Especially when you consider it was moved to this position on a 7½ inch gauge railway truck and lifted by shear legs, block, tackle, rollers, grunting and swearing.  See here, look you.

But my cunningly placed large red arrow indicates what I’m really interested in.  In the background can be seen W.H.R. Pole #1.  That pole is the start of the Welsh Highland Railway line to Penymount.  No wires as yet. But according to Malcolm Hindes, (#0449) who sent it me, this is a genuine Great Western Railway pole, acquired when the Cambrian Coast line was converted to R.T.B. (Radio Tokenless Block) and the whole pole route dismantled.

They have two more poles laid at track-side waiting to go up  – fitted with new crossarms sourced from Glasfryn forestry. The W.H.R. pole route is currently only about 10 poles long and the crossarms have been cut down from 4 insulators to 2 but is being reconstructed for the 2012 season and the whole run adds to the heritage feel of the railway .  So why not get yourself along to W.H.R. this spring and take a look at these magnificent genuine GWR telegraph poles.  Oh, and there are some trains there too apparently.

Malcolm (#0449) is resident climber of said rickety poles at WHR.  And I’m trying to think of a clever/subtle way of reminding him that he said he’d send us more photos of the rest of the poles when he got the chance. No, that would be just too cheeky!