Here is a postcard from a place in Maine, notice that line to the left of the tracks, it looks like it has 2 wires that go to those posts with birdhouse roof tops and there are 2 pony insulators on each one...i do not understand what the short posts or the close spacing would be for. has anyone seen such a set-up like this at all?..thanks for any help.

Eric

Answered: Dave Dahle has informed me that this is most likely a rope-pulley system that ran over cable sheaves and that those things under the birdhouse roofs are not insulators but rather cable sheaves. He knows of similar systems that ran from dams in Minnesota. In the postcard, there is a dam just before where the picture starts and those buildings are mills. Rope drives were most widely used in power transmission for factories and mills. So yet another mystery is solved, thanks for the help Dave.