Bar Mills - Telephone Poles

Our finished O scale poles which are a Pittsfield Expo handout. Peters pole is to the right.

Text by Peter Mumby, photos by George Dutka

Last Monday George and I got together for our weekly 3-hour work session.  I had brought my camera along and between photography and shooting the breeze, half our time quickly disappeared.  With only 90 minutes remaining, what modelling project could we get in to?  At that point George pulled out a Bar Mills kit for "Two O Scale Telephone Poles & Lampheads."  Not only did we have the perfect small project for the day, but electricity would finally be coming to the remote part of Southern Quebec/Northern New England represented on our On30 modules!

The poles are assembled but still needing the insulators and lights added. Some weathering is also needed. The binder in the background is our inspiration, courtesy of George Sellios.

Since the kit included neither instructions nor photographs, a little research was required before we got out the glue bottle.  What did a simple 1950's line pole look like?  George's file of layout shots eventually yielded a George Sellios scene with just what we were looking for.

We started the project by distressing the poles with several passes of a razor saw.    Next came an application of Hunterline stain - weathering mix for George's pole and brown for my  representation of a newer prototype.  Holes were drilled for the lampheads and then the cross arms were fastened on using Canopy glue.  The poles were then ready for an application of PanPastels.  I used the deep oxide colour while George went with the light and dark greys.  After painting the lampheads with Floquil Pullman green and old silver, they were ready for installation using a bit more Canopy glue.

Since the kit contained no insulators, a bit more thinking was due on our parts.  Now, George has lots of ideas, has a great supply of modelling supplies, and is well enough organised to know where to find things.  Within a couple of minutes he had located a container of Craft Glass Beads (from the Dollar Store) and we were back in business.  The smallest beads were quickly extracted and painted with Floquil CNW gloss green.  Four NBW castings were located for each pole; these castings, along with the beads, were then attached using Canopy glue.  Weathering powders were used to colour the NBW castings and to add a little rust to the lamp shades.  The project was complete, and our time was up.  Now, what are we going to work on next week?

The lamp bulbs got a dab of Old silver while the bolts had rusty  Bragdon powders added.

The poles are finished. Mine was done lighter as an older pole. Peter's is much newer. I think the local delivery truck on Peter's module took out his old pole.