Telegraph?

[Turkeytop]

I had to trespass on railway property to get this pic. When you have grey hair you can get away with trespassing. If they catch you, you just act confused and they gently lead you back to the street.

You always see these old poles along rail lines. The cable all stripped off them. I assume they were for telegraph. Am I right about that?



http://london.marknmel.com/albums/misc/ ... .sized.jpg

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I had to trespass on railway property to get this pic. When you have grey hair you can get away with trespassing. If they catch you, you just act confused and they gently lead you back to the street.

You always see these old poles along rail lines. The cable all stripped off them. I assume they were for telegraph. Am I right about that?



http://london.marknmel.com/albums/misc/ ... .sized.jpg

They are called telegraph poles and yes they carried those lines. They also often carried the lines for wayside signal systems for the trains and maybe phone wires sometimes too.

[TC Talks]

It would depend when the rail line was built. The last telegraph was sent in the 1890s. I would question if a telephone pole could last that long.

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the ... -telegraph

[Turkeytop]

They were still using telegraph in Canada right up into the 1960s The town where I grew up had a telegraph office.

People used to send telegrams to inform someone of a death. Or it was common to send a telegram to congratulate someone.

https://www.cbc.ca/archives/telegraph-o ... 0the%20job.

[Ben Zonia]

A song in 1967 spoke of a girlfriend using a telegram to break up with a guy. "Fifteen cents a word to me, a telegram I didn't need."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGWN51tQxMs

I think old telephone systems used those poles. The glass, which punks would shoot out, insulated the wire from the pole.

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It would depend when the rail line was built. The last telegraph was sent in the 1890s. I would question if a telephone pole could last that long.

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the ... -telegraph

More like the 1970’s.

[audiophile]

It would depend when the rail line was built. The last telegraph was sent in the 1890s. I would question if a telephone pole could last that long.

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the ... -telegraph

More like the 1970’s.

LOL!

[TC Talks]

It would depend when the rail line was built. The last telegraph was sent in the 1890s. I would question if a telephone pole could last that long.

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the ... -telegraph

More like the 1970’s.

LOL!

Telegrams ended in the 70's, the telegraph was retired much earlier.

[tapeisrolling]

I remember spending time in the small town train depot sitting just outside the office window so I could listen to the telegraph clicking away and marveled at the operator being able to talk to people and still read the code coming out. That was maybe '57? The traffic was rail related in nature.

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It would depend when the rail line was built. The last telegraph was sent in the 1890s. I would question if a telephone pole could last that long.

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the ... -telegraph

More like the 1970’s.

LOL!

Telegrams ended in the 70's, the telegraph was retired much earlier.

Not quite... railroads were still using them into the 60’s and 70’s. That was the question we were trying to answer and the last of them were retired in the 70’s.

[TC Talks]

Automated or some guy clacking out code?

[fuzzpower]

Western Union sent out telegrams until 2006. I didn’t know that until after the fact.

[audiophile]

I know the FCC sent Western Union Telegrams in the 1990's.

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Automated or some guy clacking out code?

Both. It all would have used those lines either way. Remember these lines were railroad owned and that’s who was using them. Western Union may or may not have been using different stuff. I’m simply focusing on the lines in the picture.