Questions about placing lamp posts.

JonMyrlennBailey

Well-known member
I am placing streetlights in residential areas on my route. Additionally, I am placing cars in driveways as well as people, cats, dogs, children and yard furniture on subdivision properties, etc. on my modded route that originally had only streets, fences, trees, a few clotheslines in back yards and houses in suburban neighborhoods.


I then decided to have streetlights in my California Mojave Sub route's American suburban neighborhoods as in Bakersfield.

I am wondering how they should be placed along the streets.

Should they be evenly spaced?

Should lights be on both sides of the same street in a staggered zig-zag pattern?

Is it permissible to have a light post directly in front of any home?

How close may a post be placed to a driveway?
 
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I've worked on city maps before. I live in Wichita, Kansas. The lights there are evenly spaced on the right side of the street and on the left are the power lines. I'm currently working on a route for the entire city. My only drawback is not having the right buildings, like a Target or Dillon's, or stuff like that. I'm not sure if it's the same way for California, but I suppose you could try what I did.
 
The Trainz neighborhood I am working on now has houses on both sides of the streets. I like the look of staggered posts on both sides of the street and have lived in neighborhoods with such in California. I don't ever recall if a post was placed directly in front of any home or not. I now live in an apartment complex in Boise, ID. I will have to go look and see how posts are placed in my neighborhood as there are houses near by.


Should a telephone pole even be placed in front of a home?

It affects the aesthetic beauty of people's homes. Some people are proud of how their house looks viewed in front from the street and may not want any ugly looks-obstructing poles.
 
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That is what I was thinking about. Putting the poles in dead between the space between two houses, using the wireframe lines as a reference, every other pair of side by side houses down the street while staggering them from one side of the street to the other for every pair of houses. I try to have a uniform pattern. I like to always have a light at every street corner. The houses are not always uniform in yard size or uniformed in spacing so the posts don't always have to be evenly spaced.

I have lived on streets where lights are not terribly close to one another.

I am sure every city in America has a code or standard pertaining to the placement of public lighting, poles, signs and etc. Obviously, a lamp post can't block somebody's driveway.
 
Oh yea. I'm sure they do. I need to get my head together and work on that Wichita route. 10% of it has train tracks. The rest is residential, so what I was thinking was I'd use track-roads and all that and make it to where people could drive around a 3-D Wichita. The only issue is that a lot of buildings are not available in the Trainz world.
 
In answer to your original question, drive the area you're modelling or look at it on StreetView, and model it in the manner in which it is built.

I'd say most areas have a "run" of streetlights on one side but they often switch sides, at least for a few lights or for intersection lighting. Ditto for utility poles.

Edited to add: Incandescent streetlights mostly run on one side of the road in runs of 6 or more, due to series wiring. Most today, at least in my area, have been converted to parallel connection, but they remain where they were originally installed 40-50 or more years ago.
 
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Another pointless question. OP should get away from his keyboard, talk a walk/drive and use his eyes! Or failing that open up Streetview and take a virtual walk. :)
 
Another pointless question
asmile.gif
APQ ... lol ... APT ... I'm going into GE and measure all my telephone poles distrances
 
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In my area of Los Angeles the utility poles run between the back yards in the small residential streets. The high-voltage lines run on the main streets and yes, they are very ugly.
Mick
 
The power company wanted to install another additional support pole on my neighbors property, connecting the two poles spaced 150' apart, as the wires were sagging near the ground ... the neighbor refused to allow the pole to be drilled onto their property ... so the power company used 1" nylon rope to tie the wires up to the tree on their property (@ 25 years ago) ... The jury rigged rope support to the tree still exists till this day ... I think it is a code violation

I gave my boss a lift in my car, and he remarked: "Look at all the wires and poles, wires, wires, wires, are everywhere, don't you think wires are amazing" ? I said: "No ... I never really thought about it that much ... That's stupid ... You better lay off the doobies for awhile" !
 
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I've worked on city maps before. I live in Wichita, Kansas. The lights there are evenly spaced on the right side of the street and on the left are the power lines. I'm currently working on a route for the entire city. My only drawback is not having the right buildings, like a Target or Dillon's, or stuff like that. I'm not sure if it's the same way for California, but I suppose you could try what I did.

Sorry for the OT remark, but I also live in Wichita and I would love to see this route.

Matt
 
I live in So Cal, and I just walked out to see how the lights are done on my street, so they are spaced on East side of a North faced street, with one at every other Drive way, and we have Cul De Sacs with just one Light on the Right side too. All Edison Poles are in our back yard with heavy Cable TV cables, Phone Cables too, ugly, you bet, I hate above ground electrical, but this area will never be underground.

I do know from my /neighbors that when the homes where built there were no street lights, then 10 yrs later they had them put in on one side only, so as not to have to bright an area, and it works and looks good at night, hope that helps.
 
In all seriousness though, getting out for a walk is an excellent way to gather inspiration and knowledge for a route project.

For example yesterday afternoon we took a walk on the Wiltshire Downs near Marlborough and I was looking at the effect of the low sun on the various fields and hills and kind of making a mental note as to the effect I would like to see on a route. Things also look quite different in the low winter sun (and hail shower!) than on a summer day high in the sky and 80F!
 
JonMyrlennBailey started this thread by asking, in part




I am wondering how [streetlights] should be placed along the streets.

and in my experience this is dependent upon the era, the general practices of the municipality or power provider, and the specific location. The smallest, (almost rural) communities, in general, have fewer streetlights than larger communities. They may be located only at intersections, and even then, less important intersections may not get a streetlight. In these situations, the power poles will follow the standards established with adjustments only as needed to suit the immediate situation. If you want an on-line answer, one may be found here, which suggests about 125 feet in urban areas, and up to 300 feet in rural ones, with spacing taking to account other factors as well, such as decreasing the distance if it's going to result in a power pole in the middle of a street. In urban areas, distance between streetlights has decreased over the years, so that today on busy streets, there may be eight or more streetlights streetlights to a block, and it's bright enough in the middle of the night to read the fine print on a utility bill. On the other hand, in some modern upscale residential areas, the developer made the decision to bury all services, including electric, so that there are no power poles to be seen.

On a Trainz route, for power poles in the foreground, you're going to want to model the power lines, too. It will look strange to see powerpoles and streetlights relatively close to the viewer, with no evidence of transmission lines.

ns
 
Know what you mean Vern. I lived in Warminster when I started Trainz and I used to walk up the back of Longleat by Heavens Gate to get similar inspiration. Can see into 3 counties from there.

Doug
 
Sorry I don't see your post ... i just place lamp posts wherever I want them to be, or where Google Earth shows them posted
 
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