Trackside power lines crossing rivers?

[Chris750]

Hi all; Still working on the Polar Bear Express route, currently putting in track side power lines and I have a question: how do track side power lines cross rivers? Do they run the wire on the bridge or do they run power poles across the river on footings (I am talking about a distance too large to suspend above the river)? I am also surprised to see how many times the power lines cross back and forth over the tracks on this route, I thought that would be bad mojo...no?

Thanks folks!!

 

[drphlox]

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/502752

 

[n8phu]

Depends on the depth of the water to be spanned... some roads just bought tall poles and sunk them into the river bottom (assuming there was no large commercial traffic on the river).

Sometimes they hung a crossbar on the side of the bridge and used insulators on the cross arm just like a phone pole. (Would love to see a spline in Trainz that simulates this).

There was one install I remember seeing that the poles were attached to the side to the bridge itself. The middle was a lift bridge, so the railroad ran the poles up above the lift bridge on its framing and back down the other side.

It really depends on the situation, each road handled it differently, photos are your friend.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

...a crossbar on the side of the bridge and used insulators on the cross arm just like a phone pole. Would love to see a spline in Trainz that simulates this.

I'd make one for you if I had some photos from close enough to see the detail. I would need to wait until after T:ANE is released before I could upload it to the DLS though.

Hopefully another creator will see this and step up and fill this niche before I can.

 

[JCitron]

I was thinking the same recently as I was putting one of many bridges on my current route.

Here's how they work, at least on some of the bridges I've seen.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photoman82/5340492970/

Others are just what appear as the tops of the telegraph poles where the wire cross arms are located. These are hung on the side of the bridge and carry the telegraph and power cables probably like the one shown here.

or can be like this:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/285415695105227483/

John

 

[drphlox]

Did anyone look at my post or Not?

 

[JCitron]

Did anyone look at my post or Not?

I did, but forgot to quote your link. That's what I was talking about. The side-mounted telegraph pole-tops. How else to describe them?

John

 

[Falcus]

There were many many conventions for crossing Power/Phone/Telegraph lines accross water near Rail bridges. However, in Trainz, about the only way to do it these days and make it look at all "likely" is to drop a spline Point for every Pier/Abutment (Or in the case of Trestles, every given increment that makes sense), and stick the pole into the bridge Poly's somewhere it makes sense. I usually stick a Locomotive or a few cars on the track to make sure the clearances work out, but I've been pretty happy with the results so far. As you've seen, the common way was side mounted Carrier Arms, but as another user posted, and I've seen examples of elsewhere, it wasn't unheard of to just strap poles to the bridge superstructure itself.

I will say that for the most part Its been pretty rare I've seen poles sunk into the water. Too many things can go wrong with any kind of current. Creeks, Ponds, slow moving Rivers, or dry rivers yea that makes sense, but I've never seen em sunk into even mid-sized rivers or anything that could even hint "Current".

Falcus

 

[Chris750]

Thanks all. At first I was putting the poles in the river bed on a concrete post but I didn't like the looks of it and it just struck me as not being right. The pictures, especially drphlox really show it well. I guess I will just run the poles to the end of the bridge and then start running them on the other end, not sure how I could simulate the wires running from the poles to the bridge and back to the pole using the 2+1 rail side kuid.

***trying to get into TS12 to post a picture and the damn thing is loading slower than grandpa walks, locking up and doing nothing. Can't even get the route selections to come up, I can just see losing my route (time for a backup!)***

 

[JCitron]

Thanks all. At first I was putting the poles in the river bed on a concrete post but I didn't like the looks of it and it just struck me as not being right. The pictures, especially drphlox really show it well. I guess I will just run the poles to the end of the bridge and then start running them on the other end, not sure how I could simulate the wires running from the poles to the bridge and back to the pole using the 2+1 rail side kuid.

***trying to get into TS12 to post a picture and the damn thing is loading slower than grandpa walks, locking up and doing nothing. Can't even get the route selections to come up, I can just see losing my route (time for a backup!)***

I'm glad you found what you're looking for, well sort of. I do the same with the telegraph poles. Getting the wires back up to the terrain can be a bit tricky, but fiddling with them, by adding in some additional poles helps.

I had trouble too this morning with TS12. I checked it was doing a validation for some reason. Maybe this had to do with the server adjustments made earlier this week.

John

 

[Chris750]

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I guess I could put the pole on the bridge support in this case?

 

[JCitron]

That's what I usually do. For Warren truss bridges, I align them on the supports where the bridge is divided into sections should there be more than one "link".

 

[Falcus]

Easy fix. Take that SPline Point thats out in the water and Drag it over to one of those brick/stone Bridge Piers. Put a Railcar down to check your clearances, and then try to arrange the post so that it appears to be just hanging off one side or the other of the pier. In real life their would have been guide lines or wooden reinforcement Braces, but there ya go. Do this as often as necissary, it doesn't even have to be even as this kind of Jerry rigging rarely was.

I personally hate seeing Power/Phone/Telegraph lines that come up to the water and just disappear.... It'd be better to route them somewhere else... Its not like the power company is gonna try to light the woods.... Who'ya gonna call? The Forest Squirrels? Anyway, particularly with older Wooden or Stone bridges because this kind of Jerry Rigging was so common on older stuff. Newer Steel/Iron bridges usually either had the brackets or didn't have them on the bridge (If for no other reason then by the time these kinds of bridges became easily available Telegraph lines were being replaced), but it still wasn't exactly rare for it to happen anyway.

Falcus