Kelvinbank, a Caledonian Railway project.

Love the robotic pole planter 

Painting them?  Shouldn't that be creosoting?  Love the braced poles.

The "robotic pole planter" reminds me of a cherry picker.

 

A certain gentleman on this site does railway archaeology on the track bed of long-gone lines by counting insulators on what's left of the poles.  Even if the ceramic pots have been shot off with an airgun their  J iron supports often still there or lying down the bank.  In the middle of nowhere, there is one insulator for every block wire between boxes (the Caley tended to use 1-wire instruments, though 3-wire F type instruments came in later on more important routes) plus one for every phone/telegraph circuit.  However as you get closer to a station, an extra insulator would tell you that the distant etc had an arm and/or lamp repeater in the box.  There was usually a particularly substantial or complex pole behind the box (or on the opposite side of the line), as many wires from both directions needed to turn through 90 degrees to go to the box.

Real creosote would be interesting, though unfortunately long gone.  I'll try a black with an overwash of dark brown, hopefully that will give the effect. 

 

A couple of the poles do have extra right angled arms for routes to the main buildings. The one with the finial has the timber trunking at the rear, I'll try and model the run under the bridge . 

Well-thinned “metallic” gunmetal from Humbrol makes a lovely stain for real wood, with the silvery sheen of weathered crested wood. Mix in some black or dark earth to make it look more recently creosoted.

51 minutes ago, Dave John said:

Real creosote would be interesting, though unfortunately long gone.

Yes and no.  They decided it was probably carcinogenic and though it was banned under the EU Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR) for use on your garden shed, it is still allowed in UK for professional use for the next couple of months, and that might well be extended for another 5 years.  Nowt else preserves timber as effectively.   So it is still used in practice in well controlled conditions for certain purposes including wooden railway sleepers, safety critical highway fencing       .... and telegraph/power supply poles!

 

So the only way an amateur could get hold of any is to find somebody who's got an old pot of the the stuff stashed away somewhere.