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  1. #1

    Default Just the way it was

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    How many remember "the way it was" there first day on the job, and the improvements made (or not) as time went by, and now realize how far behind the company that you worked for at the time was behind the times?
    I started linework in 84, and here are are a few things looking back where we were slightly behind the times:

    Three crews, no bucket trucks. We had one 36' service bucket that if available you could call for assistance. Our line trucks all had a bucket we carried. We gloved so even on a single phase inset, we tagged the line (with just rope) set the pole, then installed bucket on boom (manual 3rd stage fiberglass extension) tied it in. Then took off the bucket, climbed the pole and intalled xfmr, etc. Of coarse there was no leveler as gravity took care of that, and no lanyard. When we finally purchase a two man bucket most of us thought it was a pain in the ass to set up and use, and climbed a lot instead of utilizing the bucket!
    There was still wood hot sticks, bakerboard, etc. in warehouse. (They now are on display at my house!)
    What you couldn't dig with a Digger-Dereck or pressure digger was done with a spade, spoon and digging bar. (My foreman called it the "Three Phase Set". Now we have Backhoes, Mini excavater, Backyard Dollies, and Vac-truck. Grunts have it so easy these days!
    For URD we blew in a string, pulled in the pulling rope, moused the wire to the rope, and pulled that 3 phase 750 urd in by hand, manually feeding the wire off the reels. GOD BLESS THE UNDER-DOGG!
    We climbed in T-shirts, wore leathers for secondary, and laughed at the electricity tracking off our rubbers in the rain.
    On an Underground outage we would start at the dip and slam in the LB elbow pot to pot untill we blew the fuse. Wallah! We have found the fault!
    Sagging large conductor? Yank on that hoist handle untill you break the safety on the handle. "Let's call that sag!"
    Homemade pole trailer consisting of an old pole tied to an axle with a pindle hitch bolted to the end of the old pole.
    Just think, 20 years from now the newbies today will be telling stories that when they started they could "Free Climb". NFW!!
    Last edited by hotwiretamer; 04-16-2011 at 02:35 PM. Reason: Typo

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Colorful Colorado
    Posts
    115

    Default I remember

    Not having to wear harnesses or lanyards, pole tongs(outlawed at the co. I work for), horizontal boring machine on rails for which you had to dig a HUGE pit for, Pitman boom trucks with the steel winch line, and being able to sell the scrap copper for that little bit extra in your "paycheck".

  3. #3

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by cololinehand View Post
    Not having to wear harnesses or lanyards, pole tongs(outlawed at the co. I work for), horizontal boring machine on rails for which you had to dig a HUGE pit for, Pitman boom trucks with the steel winch line, and being able to sell the scrap copper for that little bit extra in your "paycheck".
    Scrap wire for us is still free game as long it is the customers scrap and not the company's. With the price of medals these days, we can "Dumpster Dive" once the warehouseman throws it away. Even galvanized steel has value these days!

  4. #4

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by hotwiretamer View Post
    How many remember "the way it was" there first day on the job, and the improvements made (or not) as time went by, and now realize how far behind the company that you worked for at the time was behind the times?
    I started linework in 84, and here are are a few things looking back where we were slightly behind the times:

    Three crews, no bucket trucks. We had one 36' service bucket that if available you could call for assistance. Our line trucks all had a bucket we carried. We gloved so even on a single phase inset, we tagged the line (with just rope) set the pole, then installed bucket on boom (manual 3rd stage fiberglass extension) tied it in. Then took off the bucket, climbed the pole and intalled xfmr, etc. Of coarse there was no leveler as gravity took care of that, and no lanyard. When we finally purchase a two man bucket most of us thought it was a pain in the ass to set up and use, and climbed a lot instead of utilizing the bucket!
    There was still wood hot sticks, bakerboard, etc. in warehouse. (They now are on display at my house!)
    What you couldn't dig with a Digger-Dereck or pressure digger was done with a spade, spoon and digging bar. (My foreman called it the "Three Phase Set". Now we have Backhoes, Mini excavater, Backyard Dollies, and Vac-truck. Grunts have it so easy these days!
    For URD we blew in a string, pulled in the pulling rope, moused the wire to the rope, and pulled that 3 phase 750 urd in by hand, manually feeding the wire off the reels. GOD BLESS THE UNDER-DOGG!
    We climbed in T-shirts, wore leathers for secondary, and laughed at the electricity tracking off our rubbers in the rain.
    On an Underground outage we would start at the dip and slam in the LB elbow pot to pot untill we blew the fuse. Wallah! We have found the fault!
    Sagging large conductor? Yank on that hoist handle untill you break the safety on the handle. "Let's call that sag!"
    Homemade pole trailer consisting of an old pole tied to an axle with a pindle hitch bolted to the end of the old pole.
    Just think, 20 years from now the newbies today will be telling stories that when they started they could "Free Climb". NFW!!
    Pretty much agree with most of what you said except the wire sagging, we always had a stopwatch and eventually moved up to dynamometers, I remember setting all our rear lot poles with a set of pole pikes a dead man and a butt board, a lot of young guys today look at you like you are crazy and think you are just talking when you speak of these things, robo-crimpers and robo-cutters are another invention that will help the new generation of lineman keep their shoulders, elbows and joints healthy throughout their career, I still like a lot of the old school stuff that I learned as you can never take that knowledge away but I am thankful for SOME of the progress that has been made, but also am sad to see what is fast becoming a trade where a lineman is no longer allowed to use common sense ie ground to ground rubber glove rule, rubber sleeves at all times etc, I'm glad that I am not a new guy coming in to all this stuff.

  5. #5

    Default 1983 for me

    Quote Originally Posted by hotwiretamer View Post
    How many remember "the way it was" there first day on the job, and the improvements made (or not) as time went by, and now realize how far behind the company that you worked for at the time was behind the times?
    I started linework in 84, and here are are a few things looking back where we were slightly behind the times:

    Three crews, no bucket trucks. We had one 36' service bucket that if available you could call for assistance. Our line trucks all had a bucket we carried. We gloved so even on a single phase inset, we tagged the line (with just rope) set the pole, then installed bucket on boom (manual 3rd stage fiberglass extension) tied it in. Then took off the bucket, climbed the pole and intalled xfmr, etc. Of coarse there was no leveler as gravity took care of that, and no lanyard. When we finally purchase a two man bucket most of us thought it was a pain in the ass to set up and use, and climbed a lot instead of utilizing the bucket!
    There was still wood hot sticks, bakerboard, etc. in warehouse. (They now are on display at my house!)
    What you couldn't dig with a Digger-Dereck or pressure digger was done with a spade, spoon and digging bar. (My foreman called it the "Three Phase Set". Now we have Backhoes, Mini excavater, Backyard Dollies, and Vac-truck. Grunts have it so easy these days!
    For URD we blew in a string, pulled in the pulling rope, moused the wire to the rope, and pulled that 3 phase 750 urd in by hand, manually feeding the wire off the reels. GOD BLESS THE UNDER-DOGG!
    We climbed in T-shirts, wore leathers for secondary, and laughed at the electricity tracking off our rubbers in the rain.
    On an Underground outage we would start at the dip and slam in the LB elbow pot to pot untill we blew the fuse. Wallah! We have found the fault!
    Sagging large conductor? Yank on that hoist handle untill you break the safety on the handle. "Let's call that sag!"
    Homemade pole trailer consisting of an old pole tied to an axle with a pindle hitch bolted to the end of the old pole.
    Just think, 20 years from now the newbies today will be telling stories that when they started they could "Free Climb". NFW!!
    .............Yea ,,,,,,,Boy can I remember those days,thats when our company was the #1 place to work here.......back then if you drinked,the supervisors thought you were great,they would sometimes bum a cig and smoke right there in the buildings while having safety meetings........no hydraulic tamps.......I remember the jys saying (keep tamping,im not tired yet) while they watched......no pole foam,just some concrete rocks on the 4x4.maybe some shell....no harnesses for buckets.....all large tucks were standards..the steel winch lines..urd..no vans......just your brains....urdpots and pedestals or hand holes..all lugs and bolts..no sweethearts....big crews could have 2 to 4 even 5 helpers....many apprentices....some jys.....headlineman or older guys never had to climb.....we wouldnt let them,that was our job.......on fridays we would stop around 11 am..go cash checks.....it was ok by the company cause we gave to the united way..ohh back then we had to give......100%........... cell phones...what are they?..........back then you could remember an azz chewing by whom/ever...now a slap on the hand...........sometimes I wonder where is this all going......what? no free climbing?...............ohh well................

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    South East Texas
    Posts
    3,278

    Default

    Ummmmmmm do I ever remember! We had 2 bucket trucks and used one of em to pull a URD trencher. Like Reppy said the JY almost never climbed.The 2nd Bucket truck was a JY an apprentice and a truckie or grunt, and given jobs like hanging st lights or security lights and occasionaly assisting a full crew on a pole changeout. There were no Cdls. There was a rule that we were spozta wear the bucket safety but it was mostly found in the bottom of the bucket.Gloves were class 2 and 34.5 was a transmission voltage.We had zero off road equippment but plenty of bustin shovels and spoons, Straight booms with pin on fiberglass jibs and pin on buckets that were such a pain in the ass to use we would rather climb. Steel winch lines insulated with 20 feet of bull line at the end. rope slings and homeade strap hoists,contests to see who could beat their hard hat to the ground, sliding a down guy, Painting a grunt, homeade rope safetys( skids for the newbies) and a store stop was magical. a coffepot on every truck and an onan generator, nastiest coffee ever some left over from the evening before. Goin to work in a tee shirt and the temp dropping to freezing and cheezy raingear that smelled like last weeks laundry. It was GREAT

  7. #7

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Pootnaigle View Post
    Ummmmmmm do I ever remember! We had 2 bucket trucks and used one of em to pull a URD trencher. Like Reppy said the JY almost never climbed.The 2nd Bucket truck was a JY an apprentice and a truckie or grunt, and given jobs like hanging st lights or security lights and occasionaly assisting a full crew on a pole changeout. There were no Cdls. There was a rule that we were spozta wear the bucket safety but it was mostly found in the bottom of the bucket.Gloves were class 2 and 34.5 was a transmission voltage.We had zero off road equippment but plenty of bustin shovels and spoons, Straight booms with pin on fiberglass jibs and pin on buckets that were such a pain in the ass to use we would rather climb. Steel winch lines insulated with 20 feet of bull line at the end. rope slings and homeade strap hoists,contests to see who could beat their hard hat to the ground, sliding a down guy, Painting a grunt, homeade rope safetys( skids for the newbies) and a store stop was magical. a coffepot on every truck and an onan generator, nastiest coffee ever some left over from the evening before. Goin to work in a tee shirt and the temp dropping to freezing and cheezy raingear that smelled like last weeks laundry. It was GREAT
    Ahh yes, sliding the guys! Did it a couple of times in my youth. I didn't like the taste of my knees too well, so I quite that stunt early!!

    We had an apprentice back in the day when we wore t-shirts, he came into the shop so many times with the whole front of his shirt missing, with nothing but the collar keeping it on! The poor ******* couldn't get the climbing down, so he didn't make it! (Back then if you couldn't climb, you couldn't do linework!)

  8. #8

    Default

    Well y'know. You look back at some of the things you did in the past and wonder how you're still alive today. But to be quite blunt... It was actually more fun then.

    Safety and red tape have stripped the joy out of work.
    Portable defibrillators were first invented to save the lives of linemen. Where's yours?

    www.bigclive.com

  9. #9

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BigClive View Post
    Well y'know. You look back at some of the things you did in the past and wonder how you're still alive today. But to be quite blunt... It was actually more fun then.

    Safety and red tape have stripped the joy out of work.
    Fortunately we have survived to tell our tales!

    How's that go? You spend the first 40 years of your life trying to kill yourself, and the last 40 years trying to fix/save it??

  10. #10

    Default way true

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    Quote Originally Posted by hotwiretamer View Post
    Fortunately we have survived to tell our tales!

    How's that go? You spend the first 40 years of your life trying to kill yourself, and the last 40 years trying to fix/save it??
    ................Im having a hard time remembering half the stuff we did..........with all those years worked there should be tons of stories,and there is...............I should start a new thread about linework dreams............had a few dreams about linework,,,,,,,,,,in some there were guys that I havent seen in centuries.only in my dreams

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