Code Lines, Union Pacific Railroad, Harvard, CA, 2010.
All the pixels, none of the tumbleweeds, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4612902834
#photography
this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
5 points (100.0% liked)
Photography
0 readers
47 users here now
All things photography. Share your own original photos, your questions, your inspiration.
Rules
Share your own original photography. No NSFW images. Be Nice.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Captured with a DSLR and 24mm shifting lens (vertically shifted just a bit) on a hot day in the Mojave desert.
This is a simple composition, characteristic of the early 20th century Precisionist school. There's little in the frame that isn't essential. The pylons, wires, and tracks all converge at a vanishing point at the edge of the frame, suggesting, but not showing, a more expansive network of wires, tracks, and, for better or worse, human dominance over nature.
Telegraph poles like these, with multiple "code lines", were once a common feature along American railroads. They are distinguishable from ordinary power or telephone lines by their multitude of cables, often occupying several crossarms. They typically carried a power bus plus individual lines for the signals along the route, with more efficient encodings used as technology improved.
They've been mostly supplanted by more modern SCADA systems that don't require so many individual wires.
@mattblaze@federate.social The thing I find most striking about these railroad poles is that the lines themselves are so nearly straight -- there's almost no catenary curve to them
Always wondered why that was. Short spans? Stiff wires? Extra high tension? All three?
@njvack@ruby.social I think short spans. You don't want wind causing the wires to sway in the way of the trains.
@mattblaze@federate.social You also don't want the wires to touch each other, right?