Old School Pics

[rowdy2133]

Pacific Power has a training center that is filled with framed pictures of old school lineman photos, you know the photos I'm talking about, the old boys on ratty looking structures in nothing but hooks and a felt hat, or 20 guys hand setting a transmission pole! Does anyone know of a website where a guy could find photos like this, I am looking to build a game room that I would like to decorate like a linework museum! Thanks for any tips...Rowdy

[returntotheeve]

You can go to Florida with a camera today and get those same shots! OOOOOOOOHHHH!!!! "High Five Action"

[power-history]

Pacific Power has a training center that is filled with framed pictures of old school lineman photos, you know the photos I'm talking about, the old boys on ratty looking structures in nothing but hooks and a felt hat, or 20 guys hand setting a transmission pole! Does anyone know of a website where a guy could find photos like this, I am looking to build a game room that I would like to decorate like a linework museum! Thanks for any tips...Rowdy

Rowdy,

I really like your decorating idea!

I'm not a lineman, just sort of an amateur historian interested in old infrastructure stuff. I have a handful of old ads, catalog pages and magazine articles here:
http://long-lines.net/other/electrical/index.html
I'd be glad to send you high-res scans of any of those items that you want. I add new images when I have time; and I'll announce them in this forum.

[power-history]

Another idea: look on eBay for Reddy Kilowatt merchandise.

And if you or someone you know has artistic talent, you could make all kinds of Reddy decorations.

[Highplains Drifter]

Quote from Power History
"And if you or someone you know has artistic talent, you could make all kinds of Reddy decorations."
I know that NSP 10 years ago had the patient on Reddy Kilowatt, now that NSP is part of Excel I do not know if Excel is holding it or not.

[Squizzy]

Don't know if this one will be Old School enough its 30 odd years old and he is still working. Did my apprentiship in his section and he is still working just click and scroll down you will know it when you see it.

http://www.powerlineman.com/lforum/showthread.php?t=1143&page=39

[power-history]

Quote from Power History
"And if you or someone you know has artistic talent, you could make all kinds of Reddy decorations."
I know that NSP 10 years ago had the patient on Reddy Kilowatt, now that NSP is part of Excel I do not know if Excel is holding it or not.

Yes, that's the sad story of Reddy Kilowatt - he's bounced from one owner to another, and still sits "locked up" and unused, somewhere. He was once among the most-recognized trademarks in America, but I'll bet that most young people today have never seen him.

The last news I read was that NSP had formed a subsidiary, Reddy Kilowatt, Inc. for the exclusive purpose of marketing the character. But that was years ago and, obviously, nothing has been done. The best proof of Reddy's dormant status is that fact that the web domain name reddykilowatt.com is owned by someone but is "parked", with no content.

Reddy was created in the 1920s by Ashton Collins, a public-relations executive at Alabama Power. Over time, the character was licensed to other investor-owned utilities. The rural electric co-ops developed their own competing mascot, Willy Wiredhand, who I think is still in use.

[power-history]

I just came across a source of pics you might like - it's the Library of Congress "American Memory" image collection. The main page is http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html. I got some good images searching on "lineman", "linemen", "power line" and "rural electrification".

Here's an example, which happens to be the work of Ansel Adams:
http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/ppprs/00200/00222v.jpg

This is from the construction of an internment camp for Japanese Americans during WWII.