Since taking a job in fairly remote Lynn Lake, Manitoba, I've been hard-pressed to get much insulator-searching in. The town itself wasn't established until the 1950s when nickel ore was discovered near the current town site. The Hudson Bay Railway built this branch line to service the town. It remained in use until the late 1980s or so, with rails removed from downtown Lynn Lake to the edge of city property for taxation reasons. Went for a walk this evening to check out a section of the line. I couldn't help but notice these odd tripodal poles. Since a large proportion of northern Manitoba is a mixture of swamps, fens, marshes and bogs (like the one depicted here), I assume this pole configuration was used to prevent the poles from sinking in or falling over in went, unstable soil. Note that the poles are wired together at their bottoms, to stop the tripod's base from spreading outwards and collapsing. The line was constructed with Dominion 42s and Owens Illinois-made CD 1049 spools on Canadian-made cast aluminum case point brackets. Replacement consist of Armstrong's 155s, H.K.Porters, Continental Rubber Works R-4s and some other common plastic "154s".