Pole route
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A pole route usually refers to a telephone link or electrical power line between two or more locations by way of an overhead line suspended on wooden utility poles. This method of link is common especially in rural areas where burying the cables would be expensive. Another situation in which pole routes were extensively used were on the railways to link signal boxes. Traditionally (prior to around 1965) pole routes were built with open wires; this necessitated insulation when the wire passed over the pole, thus preventing the signal from becoming attenuated. To do this, cables were separated using spars with insulators spaced along them; in general four insulators were used per spar. Two such pole routes still exist on the UK rail network, one in the highlands of Scotland, and the other between Wymondham, Norfolk and Brandon in Suffolk, the latter being due for replacement in 2009.
