I know there's a lot of railroad fans here at ECN, and maybe someone can shed some light on whether these are still in use, the lines do drop to the control boxes at signaling sites so Im assuming they're still in use

PS this is along the 99 Fwy in Kern & Tulare Co.s in California

I don't think that they are used much anymore, if at all. Most rail routes now have fiber buried along them by telephone service providers and the railroads get to use their fiber as part of the deal. Sprint was actually formed as a joint venture between US Telecom and Southern Pacific Railroad.

I've seen a lot of the same condition of old signal wiring in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the copper thieves start going after that next.

Same thing up here in Canada.

The CN rail mainline has sagging sections (missing poles) and completely missing spans coming into my city.

On the other hand CP rail's mainline has gone underground west of the city and to the east they are using a telephone system style overhead cable attached to the old telegraph poles. All the old open wire system has been removed from those poles.

Both railways also have fibre along side their ROW as they were partners in a alternative long distance provider before selling out.

I wonder why the railways are not out reclaiming the copper or selling the rights to a salvage company at the current price?

And let's not forget the posting from 2003 with the unusual things found on railway poles.
https://www.electrical-contractor.n...bb/showflat/Number/114362/page/0/fpart/1

Here in NJ, I don't believe that they are used either anymore. I do know that there are signals of different frquencies sent out over the track itself from the station to the train engine. There could be many different signals all running at the same time. The signals can tell where the train is, if the train passed a red signal, and it could even stop a train dead in its tracks if the engineer goes through a red signal. My nephew is an electrican on the RR now here in NJ.