Ever Look Up And Wonder....

[freshjive]

Have you ever looked up and wondered just how old are the overhead power lines in your area of work...I mean how old are they? from the 60's and 50's? I see hendrix cable and I wonder if its as old as the poles because some of the poles are circa 1970, but the cable still looks good..KInd of a stupid thing to wonder, but it fascinates me just how long this stuff stays in the air and the beating it sometimes takes. So how old do you think the actual wire is on some circuits in your areas and i don't mean fresh reconducts either. I'm talking about stuff that was up before you worked here, but still looks like its in great shape like hendrix stuff..What do you think 70's 80's?

[west coast hand]

I have changed out poles in socal that were from the 30's and 40's

[mainline]

We have copper from the 30s, and arms with wooden pins scattered around.

[tramp67]

I've worked on rebuilds with pots dated to the 1920's in the Midwest. Other areas, poles and equipment from the 60's is considered old - I guess that means I'm old too!:D

[west coast hand]

I've worked on rebuilds with pots dated to the 1920's in the Midwest. Other areas, poles and equipment from the 60's is considered old - I guess that means I'm old too!:D
where those pots square and cast iron pots the ones i changed out where from the 30's the ones i did weighted a s%#T load can't remember what they weighted but they were HEAVY. And we still have alot of wood pins on arms all over out here

[Edge]

you'd love it out here... 3 phase cwc with a 1/o neutral from when it was cut over to y from delta in the 40 and the cwc has been there since the 20's but it's urban and to crazy to try to rework so ya just keep on gettin up... poles that are still standing and just now gettin changed out from the 20s/30s/and 40s... still got box style cutouts from the old days that are on laterals they blow ya just gotta hang a "new" one... transmission poles from the early days of concrete constructions spliced togeather with stubs and stainless steel banding... I look up and wonder all the time bud been doing this shit for a while and still see something new thats really old every time I gaze down the line...

for what it's worth...

Edge

[freshjive]

We do pole transfers and everything else, but i always wonder, how old is the actual wire we are moving on the new pole and new arm..POles and arms get changed all the time, but we never actually change the cable that's on the poles..I guess whenever it was built, it was built to stand the test of time..I've heard in my area (Northeast MA), most of the Hendrix spacer cable is from the 60's and 70's (but it still looks damn good for its age), and the #6 copper, #4 copper, and 1 ot aluminum, well who knows how old some of that stuff is. My best guess is, a lot of it is probably from the 50's, when the demand for electricity was growing fast..Speaking of old cans, we lowered a can about 10 months ago from a pole on a farm house that was from 1929. It was probably pole-ginned up there after, of course, they hand dug the hole. Those old black CSP cans that are loaded with PCBs were built to last baby..They sure as hell don't make em like that anymore. I also wonder, since line crews were a lot bigger in the 60's, 70's, and early 80's, I wonder if those huge conductor jobs were contracted out, or if they were built in-house....Just little thoughts that cross my boared mind during the day lol...

[Lizzy Bordon]

I was told by a old dog lineman that the poles that look like a roof top or a upside down v on top are older than 1942. They stopped making that style in 1942. I think about that everytime I ride by one and there are lots of them up here.

[tramp67]

where those pots square and cast iron pots the ones i changed out where from the 30's the ones i did weighted a s%#T load can't remember what they weighted but they were HEAVY. And we still have alot of wood pins on arms all over out here

Yes, heavy cast iron pots, mostly hung off crossarms. Allis Chalmers made a lot of them back then, when things were built to last. I don't remember ever changing one of those suckers out due to failure, just for conversions. Most of the wood pins are just floating around in big rotted holes in the crossarms, the pins seem indestructible too!

[Fiberglass Cowboy]

Have worked on 34kv line (2 pole structures) that was, ... I think if i remember right #2 stranded copper and 1/0 acsr. 2 outside phases were the copper and the middle phase was the acsr. This line is used as sub-transmission and distribution. Was told by the old timers that during WW2 the company hooked up the line in an open-delta position and stripped out the 1 middle phase (which was copper) and sold it to the government for the war effort (ammunition). Interesting. Have seen old dry type and square-box transformers. Still have old box-style fused cut-outs on the 4kv line (2400/4160 ground wye.) Once changed out 2 (both) sets of double dead-end arms on a buck-arm corner (a.k.a. 3 phase right angle junction) feeder (backbone) pole, where the pole was from sometime around the 30's maybe; but the phases were ALL 4/0 SOLID COPPER. Talk about heavy. This stuff was put up long before the days of high strength (hughes-wood or fiberglass) arms. Just on 2 double armed crossarms. Hats off - to the men that sagged those lines with their old rope-blocks !!! Linemen in the old days did ALOT of amazing stuff. Hats off to all of them. :cool:

[Koga]

the 20s and 30s still up and runnin for sure. Old steel braces. Box type cut outs. Took some old string insulators down with 1924 date on em. Tons of the old copper weld. Hemi if your still around did you ever find anything on that arrestor I sent. I know it was probably pre WW2. Yep we still have the old stuff.Those guys built it to last for sure.

Koga

[mainline]

I love copperweld that stuff is bullet proof. We had two jobs last year that removed 4/0 cu stranded, and 2/0 cu stranded. One of the smaller guys could get lift off when holding onto a handline when we were cutting it down. The 4/0 was so heavy we used a capstan to lower it. I blows my mind to think how much was done with brute strength back in the day. Though that explains the tough shape some of the old guys are in physically.

[Koga]

tons of old 4/0 cu and 2/0 cu still up. Some of the old guys could cut guy wire with kliens or pick up xfrmers, 40ft timbers. Defenitly wanted to keep em smillin. Whole different world back then.

Koga

[Edge]

We do pole transfers and everything else, but i always wonder, how old is the actual wire we are moving on the new pole and new arm..POles and arms get changed all the time, but we never actually change the cable that's on the poles..I guess whenever it was built, it was built to stand the test of time..I've heard in my area (Northeast MA), most of the Hendrix spacer cable is from the 60's and 70's (but it still looks damn good for its age), and the #6 copper, #4 copper, and 1 ot aluminum, well who knows how old some of that stuff is. My best guess is, a lot of it is probably from the 50's, when the demand for electricity was growing fast..Speaking of old cans, we lowered a can about 10 months ago from a pole on a farm house that was from 1929. It was probably pole-ginned up there after, of course, they hand dug the hole. Those old black CSP cans that are loaded with PCBs were built to last baby..They sure as hell don't make em like that anymore. I also wonder, since line crews were a lot bigger in the 60's, 70's, and early 80's, I wonder if those huge conductor jobs were contracted out, or if they were built in-house....Just little thoughts that cross my boared mind during the day lol...

well as far as the wire goes I can tell ya for a fact jack.... some of that shit is REALLY old especially on the 'mission side of things... I've gone out as a contractor rebuilding structure that my old man built and we used the same wire... now mind you this was transmission

and I remember replacing breakers in a ship yard in the DC Baltimoore/Ann... area that were from the 20's with ones from the 50's and that was only 15 years ago or so... it's crazy what some companys do to save money...

for what it's worth

Edge

[freshjive]

well edge one things certainly for sure, they do get their moneys worth out of it..

[Pootnaigle]

I removed some old 2/0 solid cu from a downtown area. The spans wern't but maybe a 100 ft or so n that crap was still heavy. A real challenge to cut with a pair of Kliens too. we had an old foreman that was rumored to be able to cut a ground rod with Kleins but I never saw it. He had hands that were huge. Lottsa old cast iron pots. hung off arms with rack. Better not try snatchin one of those up with the early material handlers. Enclosed cutouts on tons of 4 kv stuff many of em nailed to the arm instead of using a bracket. Try jerkin them babys open and you would have em just hanging in midair before ya knew it.After years of trying to refuse em with a stick I just gave up and relegated myself to climbing the pole and replacing em. I bleve I managed to refuse maybe 2 in my career and one of them broke the eye off when I shut it.PCB's No prollem we usta burn the old transformer oil in our deisel trucks. Stunk like hell but worked. I bleve the EPA ruined that deal.
Transformers today are wound with aluminum instead of copper, Tanks are thinner metal and oil is usually just mineral oil making em seriously lighter and less durable, specially after a lightening storm.

[loosescrews]

converted part of our system that was 24 had all copper wire number six number 4 and even number 8. old bird house cut outs. wooden arm pins and at the step down and old lineman had put number four copper through the barrels.(we know why it would'nt go out.) another section is cu weld and in town in one place is 4/0 strand cu.

[tramp67]

converted part of our system that was 24 had all copper wire number six number 4 and even number 8. old bird house cut outs. wooden arm pins and at the step down and old lineman had put number four copper through the barrels.(we know why it would'nt go out.) another section is cu weld and in town in one place is 4/0 strand cu.

How do you know it was Swamprat that put the #4 copper in the barrels?:D

[loosescrews]

never said it as swamprat. just and old lineman that retired from my system

[glover]

4/0 copper in salt spray areas, got to be from the early 50's

[concord]

on some of the old 2 phase circuits we have. They would use a 2/0 solid copper for the A & C phases and would use 4/0 copper for the b wire.

Took down 11 spans of 3x350 aerial lead cable that when we opened it up and looked for the date strip it was from 1937...