Matt Blaze
mattblaze@federate.social
Code Lines, Union Pacific Railroad, Harvard, CA, 2010.
All of the pixels, none of the rattlesnakes, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4612902834
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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.
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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.
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I have worked on a code line SCADA system for N&W Railroad that used DC signals, some of them I were told were carried along fencing wires. The field stations where they terminated had a wall covered in electromagnetic relays maybe 12" by 18" in size, and REALLY loud.
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