Model Kit | Telephone Poles by Atlas

Atlas Telephone Poles

Nothing adds realism to a model railroad like telephone poles. There's something about telephone and telegraph poles lining the tracks on a model railway that elevates a hobbyist from 'guy-with-a-big-train-set' to 'serious model railroader'.

And you earn another 1000 points if you're willing to spend hours linking up all the telephone poles on your layout with ultra-fine black nylon thread. But be prepared for those occasional 'Godzilla gets caught in the power cables' moments, if you do.



This is one of two versions provided in the box of 12. This telephone pole is one with the additional yard-arm. 

But back to the Telephone Poles by Atlas.

Atlas Telephone Poles come in boxes of 12, pre-assembled and molded in brown plastic. Two types of poles are provided, six with a yard-arms and six without. I'm not exactly sure what the yard-arms are for on the original prototype, but having two types of telephone poles on the layout does help break up the monotony a bit.




A Fleischmann passenger train steams past this Atlas Telephone Pole

I painted the wooden sections a woody brown with Humbrol's Dark Earth and the 'ceramic' tips and transformer boxes with ModelColor's Ivory white.



A telephone pole by the lumber yard. Note the holes at the base for attaching the pole to the baseboard with track nails. A Fleischmann track cleaning rubber is on the wagon at left.

Atlas was thoughtful enough to provide two holes in the bases of their telephone poles to allow them to be attached to the layout with track nails. I chose to use Fleischmann HO track screws instead of track nails, which do a pretty permanent job of securing each telephone pole to the layout.



I've attached this telephone pole with Fleischmann track screws. It'll look a look better once I've concealed the base with some ground cover.

Now to get to stringing up all the poles to each other with fine nylon thread!

But then again, maybe not.