There is a rail trail in Swanzey that I drive by occasionally and I noticed this past summer that there was heavy equipment all along it. There were piles of what I first thought were pipes, but they turned out to be new power poles. I noticed that the heavy equipment was finally gone last week so I thought I’d go see what had gone on. In other words I was being nosey.
What had gone on was new power poles had been put in place and the growth under them had been removed. All the plants that once grew under them had been replaced by grass but luckily, along the side of the rail trail that the power company doesn’t have rights to, the plants were left alone. It is very common here to have high tension electric wires follow right along beside what once were railroad tracks. The railroads in turn, often followed rivers. I suppose materials to build railroads could have been floated down rivers and then, once electricity came along, the materials for power lines could have been shipped by rail. I don’t know this as fact but it would explain why rivers, railroads and power lines always seem to be side by side.
These new poles are made of steel and are very tall. They are also 12 sided, with the upper pole section slipping down over the lower section. They’re then bolted together. Lining those holes up to get the bolts in must be quite a chore when everything is dangling from a crane.
I would guess, since steel is an excellent conductor and wood is not, that the poles would have been much less hazardous if they had been made of wood as they have always been.

Many of the new poles are right there on the side of the rail trail, so how they expect that people will stay away from them is anyone’s guess. I’m sure children will be all over them. I was when I was a boy, but those were wooden poles. You can also see in this shot how, where the poles go into the ground they’re coated in some type of rubberized material, most likely to keep them from rusting. Since the coating was already scratched away in many places I have little faith that there will be no rusting going on.
There is an old railroad bridge out here that once carried cars over the railroad tracks. I’ve driven over it many times myself.

The timbers are stout and still appear to be strong but the highway department has closed it to all but foot traffic.
They could have closed it because the road was put down over wood, as this view of the underside shows. All the paving of the road over the years was actually being supported by simple wooden boards. Of course when this bridge was built the traffic might have been chiefly made up of horse drawn wagons and model A Fords.
Though a brush cutter cleared the sides of the trail recently you’d never know it from this shot. You can see lots of the old wooden poles that hadn’t been replaced yet.
These old poles still look solid to me but I’m not a power company engineer. They could all be like hollow trees.
It was cold enough for there to be frost in the shade on this morning.
I saw that horses had used the trail.
Deer had used it as well.
There is lots of old farmland out here. I’d guess it is probably all used for hay fields now.
It was clear that this cattle gate hadn’t been used for a while.
An old stone boundary marker had been cut by hand and was shaped like the state of New Hampshire.
I saw a few American hazelnut (Corylus americana) catkins, and that made me think of spring.
The hazelnuts themselves had been bored into and the meat eaten, either by a bird or an insect. I’ve never seen this before. I have seen birds pecking at goldenrod galls though, so maybe that’s what has happened here.
I was surprised to see a young goldenrod plant looking like it thought spring was here.
Most goldenrods looked like this; long gone to seed. These tall plants that stand up above the snow are an important source of food for the birds in the winter after snow covers all the seeds on the ground. There were several chickadees scolding me as I took this photo so I wondered if they were eating the seeds already.
Last time I was out here I found a well-constructed hideout some kids had made. They would have to crawl on their stomachs to get through that small hole but that wouldn’t have bothered me when I was a boy. I thought, since all the growth along the sides of the trail had been cut, that it would have been destroyed but no, the mowers went around it and left it alone. I’m guessing whoever was driving the tractor once had a hideout too.
The last time I walked a rail trail a flock of robins was busy eating all the staghorn sumac berries but out here the fruit was untouched. It’ll be good winter food.
I saw some escaping pumpkins. I’m guessing that they wanted to get into the drainage channel. From there they could get to a stream and from there to the river and from there to the Atlantic. Once in the ocean well, the world is your oyster.
Everything is light, everything is warmth, everything is electricity, everything is a magnetic field, everything is you.~ Md Anisuzzaman
Thanks for coming by.
Interesting juxtaposition of the railroads, rivers and power lines, and I’d be inclined to think that was exactly why. I like old bridges and glad that one is still open to foot traffic. Hope you’re doing well, Allen. I’ve been on another planet lately, but today we will decorate the Christmas tree, so I seem to have returned to this one!
Thank you Cynthia. Nothing wrong with visiting other planets now and then. I do the same!
If I don’t speak with you before I hope you and the family will have a very Merry Christmas. Be sure to take plenty of photos of that beautiful little granddaughter of yours!
Steel poles seem like a hazard to me. Around here, the old wooden utility poles are drilled and treated with fungicide injected into the holes by the power company every so often.
I like the hideout. I made a few of my own in youth. The image of the pumpkins headed for the sea is interesting, and sounds like it might make a good children’s book, Allen.
Thank you Lavinia. Yes, I would think wooden poles would be much safer. Wires have fallen from poles in this area and people have been electrocuted.
I hope we all had hideouts in our youth!
I’ve actually seen pumpkins floating down the river and theoretically they could have made it all the way to the Atlantic. I used to build rafts and dream the same thing.
Metal power poles do sound odd. I hope that they don’t lead to public danger. I agree with Bart about following rivers. They are the line of least resistance.
I hope that your pumpkins make it to freedom.
Thank you, Me too!
Yes, the land around rivers is usually quite flat but it also floods in some cases.
I’ve seen pumpkins floating downriver before and they came to mind when I saw these examples so close to the ditch.
We have had many examples of flooded railways lately to prove your point.
Two suggestions:
One, railroads (and roads) often were built along rivers because rivers created the gentlest grades.
Two, looking closely at those hazelnuts, it looks like there are teeth marks, maybe from a small rodent
like a vole?
Thanks John, that makes sense. Rivers also flood but I’m sure the engineers and planners took that into consideration.
I saw that on those hazelnuts but I wasn’t sure because the nuts were so high off the ground. I suppose I forgot that mice are very good climbers!
The rail roads followed the rivers because most of the time it was easier then going over or under the mountains. It is unlikely that they would have moved materials by badge on the river. The railroads had their own quarries and cut the stone as they built the line. They also mined and manufacturing their own ballast. An interesting example is the line coming out of Keene going to Westmoreland and then Walpole. To lower the grade they quarry out tons of stone and used it to fill in the low areas. These lines should be operational rail lines.
Thank you Bart. Yes, a lot of the stone from the “deep cut” up in Westmoreland was used elsewhere along the route. Some of it was blasted and some cut with feathers and wedges. The cut stone was used in retaining walls that are still standing.
I agree, trains should run through there again.
What a fun romp! Cheerful look at how the culture/generations move on in mistaken, sometimes natural, by-ways. Lovely brilliant almost ground level light in initial shot of berry leaves.
Thank you Lucy, I’m glad you thought so. Yes, the sunlight was just right to back-light those dewberry leaves!
I really enjoy your posts. Do you post through the winter?
Thank you Jill. Yes, I’m out year ’round!
That’s a lovely human story about the ‘hideout’. It made me chuckle.
Thank you. It’s a well made thing, all woven out of branches and twigs.
What a nice exploratory, nosy walk, Allen. Love the light in the pic of blackberry leaves. I remember countless hideouts constructed by me and my sibs during childhood in a number of “wild places” we claimed as our own. Happy memories, huh? How’s you fare in the storm last weekend?
Thanks Ginny. Yes, every time I see something like that hideout it brings back a lot of happy memories.
Here where I live we got just a dusting but where I work, 25 miles away, got about 3 wet inches which immediately froze into concrete and hasn’t thawed yet. We’re hoping to see the sun again sometime soon!