*** Warning – niche interest article ***
That thing about pylons that you might not have known … straight or bent arms ?
Bent arm pylons carry cables in straight lines
Straight arm pylons are used where the direction of cable travel changes
Niche. But very useful for navigating.
You may however also see some much newer weird shape pylons (inverted triangles etc) which don’t always conform to the straight or bent arm ‘rule’.
Oh, and it helps to understand how they’re represented on maps too. On a 1:25K map the type of supporting structure (post or pylon) is marked along with its *actual* location and cha ge in direction. On a 1:50K map the exact details are not shown.
Increasingly in National Parks and SSSI’s there is a campaign to ‘underground’ cables from view so you might see the abrupt ending (to view) of many miles of pylons as they ‘enter’ a protected landscape
There are a LOT of things shown on maps by black lines of various width and length and they represent many different things. It’s really worth sorting this ‘mess’ out in your head and learning what they are before you look for something that isn’t physically on the ground, or set off along something that isn’t a public right of way !!
NB as at 2021 the legends for 1:25k and 1:50k maps on the OS Maps App were NOT as up to date as the most recent paper printed maps. If you want to learn legend symbols either buy a recently updated paper map or view OS online (not via the app.
Oh, and i’m available for 1:1 and small group navigation courses in 2022 🙂