Pylons .

[Pylon King]

1 minute ago, Daniel Beardsmore said:

While you’re there, what source material do you use for the dimensions and details of your excellent models?

I know a couple of people who work in the industry, they supplied the engineers drawings and blueprints .

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Just now, Pylon King said:

I know a couple of people who work in the industry, they supplied the engineers drawings and blueprints .

 

How friendly are these folk? I’ve been working with someone in the industry who’s helped unravel a lot of mysteries (and provided the material that underlies many of my more recent additions to my diagram library) but lots still remain. For example, from Matt we know that there is a “Blaw Knox PL7” (as noted above) but not where this line is, or under which region this PL7 scheme exists (nothing to do with SEE PL7 which is Watshams). “lesc” at PAS reported that the old Eve 0.125 type is “PL6” but his example was Sloy–Carradale, which was a NOSHEB line not a CEGB line, it could not have been any CEGB PL6 scheme!

[L2's are great!]

Have a trundle through Gloucestershire on street view for some time and you'll come across the ZF line. Here seen near Cirencester 

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Strange pylon of the month:

 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/P3SbVBnx64C4sAqD8

 

Eve L6 D serving as a wish-it-were DD60 (actual angle 40°) or more comically, as a height-extended LD60, on a Watshams 132 kV line. (Don’t know the scheme name, it’s on some of my SEE PL7 general arrangement drawings just as “Thornhill–Halifax”, which is how I came by the Flickr photo below.)

 

On the right here but the above link is clearer:

 

 

[SHMD]

I wonder if these will ever happen?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66404487

 

(Some already have!)

 

 

Kev.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

This is one of those situations where it would be good to get some input from a pylon engineer: what are the trade-offs for fanciful designs? I notice that they have narrow bases. Ever noticed that German pylons tend to have much more narrow bases than ours? Some of the SL (secondary line) tower suites contain towers whose bodies that are straight all the way to the ground, with the kink line just above or just below ground level. (The Watshams suite used for SEE SL4 has a below-ground kink for S10 and D10, and the Blaw Knox E102 suite used for MEE SL1 has a slightly above-ground kink line for S3 but not S20 or S60.)

 

Observation of foreign towers leads to various questions about trade-offs, such as what the optimum level of earthwire shade is. Countries like Germany have a huge amount of earthwire shade and some countries seem to use double earthwire for all towers while in Britain we abandoned double earthwire decades ago (the Hungarian example in the BBC article has “inboard” double earthwire like older Blaw Knox towers, while we switched to “outboard” double earthwire with PL16 and PL7 before dropping it), and the consensus seems to be that you don’t actually need a huge amount of earthwire shade.

 

Other questions include whether you should go single, twin or triple tier. Why not just use twin tier (L9/L12L) everywhere? Do we prefer height over width? Germany prefers twin tier, but the BBC article shows that they also use single tier.

 

So many questions, if anyone could ever find a friendly pylon engineer.

[L2's are great!]

Anyone able to shed light on what those things are on the earth wire. Seen them on the line between Walpole and Pelham and here just north of Carrington.

[SHMD]

I always thought they were there because there was an airfield nearby.

 

 

Kev.

[nejh1]

On 01/09/2022 at 21:36, Daniel Beardsmore said:

I’ll just leave this here … https://telcontar.net/Power/pylons/series — still in progress. Not sure how far I’ll get, and I don’t plan to cover all the oddities, only those types that can be accurately converted into SVG diagrams. Maybe someone somewhere will find the various types easier to understand this way than having to trawl around the Web for months trying to figure anything out.

Daniel

 

I have just discovered this, fantastic resource.  I love lists and classification of anything engineering.  One thing I couldn't find is about height extensions, do you or indeed anyone else know anything about them?  There is some stuff on The Gorge. 

[Daniel Beardsmore]

6 minutes ago, nejh1 said:

Daniel

 

I have just discovered this, fantastic resource.  I love lists and classification of anything engineering.  One thing I couldn't find is about height extensions, do you or indeed anyone else know anything about them?  There is some stuff on The Gorge. 

 

What did you want to know about them specifically?

[nejh1]

34 minutes ago, Daniel Beardsmore said:

 

What did you want to know about them specifically?

Mainly whether there are standard patterns or whether they are specific to a situation.

 

By the way, I have been collecting pylon stuff for a while I am sure I don't have any drawings you don't have, I have a few technical papers which are almost certainly copyrighted, but if you want them happy to send.

Edited November 29, 2023 by nejh1

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Yes there are standard height extensions, in fixed increments, originally 10 foot but, as you can see on the L2 page, they changed it to increments of 4 foot:

 

https://telcontar.net/Power/pylons/L2

 

Now I think it’s increments of 3 m?

 

The L2 system is clever in that the extensions are modular: you build larger extensions using new sections in conjunction with the smaller extensions.

 

There are also standard height reduction on 50s designs onwards, and hillside extensions that are taller on one side.

 

There are also ad hoc extensions where an existing tower has steelwork inserted to raise it up, which I depicted an earlier page. (Not added to my site yet as I recall.)

 

What do you mean by technical papers? Not sure it would help me necessarily but I know two people who are researching the history may find the details very useful depending what you have.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

L2 height extensions were actually in 12 foot increments, except the D and LD (long-span) where it was a combination of 4 and 8 foot increments. My site does already describe and depict height extensions but only briefly. Here’s a preliminary diagram showing the L2 modular height extension system — the 8 (blue), 16 (green) and 24-foot (red) legs can be added to intermediate sections, e.g. the (purple) 24-foot body extension:

 

 

Not sure how many variants I will include in the final image as I don’t want it to get too wide! E20 is the 24′ legs + 12′ body extension + 8′ legs. E28 is 24′ legs + the 12′ body extension + 16′ legs. E36 uses the 24′ legs + 12′ body extension + a second set of 24′ legs. And so on.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I’ve improved the height extensions/reductions section a bit (on the first page below), with L2 and SWE PL1(a)&(b) diagrams (the latter because it’s an odd way of doing it that caused some confusion when ID’ing towers in Scotland), with additional heights shown on the L2 page:

 

https://telcontar.net/Power/pylons/towers

https://telcontar.net/Power/pylons/L2

 

I was going to merge the EE PL1 diagrams into a single image, but I need to come back to this, as I need to rework the tower itself based on the GA (although I will be doing SWE PL1 as that’s what I have the GAs for as well as photos of actual towers) — the tower bible images are not always dimensionally accurate!

 

*pokes Pylon King regarding earlier question*

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Earth calling Pylon King … Earth calling Pylon King …

 

In the meantime, while looking through my various photo sets for post boxes, I came across my second set of Eve 0.175 sq. in. SCA (CEB L132 compliant) tower photos from Berkhamsted/Chesham.

 

Autumn was near its end … this was late November. Took the train to Berkhamsted, then walked to Lye Green (Chesham) and back. That was a challenging walk considering the time constraints.

 

 

Eve 0.175 D30:

 

 

Another of the Eve 0.175 D30s:

 

 

The first one again, once I had got closer:

 

 

The line crossing the countryside:

 

 

Gynandromorphic Eve 0.4 (400 mm² “Zebra” ACSR) DT on the left (calling this one “Variant 5”), and Eve 0.175 (175 mm² “Lynx” ACSR) DT90 on the right, Lye Green Grid:

 

 

Also, some three-tier 33 kV wood poles. The substation appears to have been reconfigured, as the two lines are joined on one side (the other circuits terminating separately), yet the Piccotts End to Lye Green Grid line (Lynx) cannot carry the current that the other line (Zebra) can. With that said, Elstree–Rye House is PL16 (Lynx) and the spur to St Albans is on Eve 0.4 (Zebra) towers!

 

(Of course, any of these lines may have since been reconductored to AAAC or other type. I couldn’t get any sense out of UKPN … I’m just a dumb photographer with a lousy camera staring in from the outside into an impenetrable industry of the same uncooperative and unwilling folk who clog up every office everywhere. Humbug.)

 

Is it just me, or is this one of our most elegant tower suites? Wish it was more common. The D2 is so much nicer than PL16 D2S. The DT is just weird though — I much prefer the 0.4 SCA version. L7 is nice too except the hideous D, which should have been left to Eve. In fact, all of L7 should have been handed to Eve as the BICC portion of L7 is overkill.

 

No more photos, as this forum software is completely unable to add up:

 

 

Don’t ask me what sort of cack-handed mathematics it’s using here. You see this nonsense all the time at The Daily WTF though. I wish all blood had boiled off already from too many years trapped in the IT industry, but sadly there is still some left to froth out of my skull.

 

[RELIEF SIGNALMAN]

Took this photo back in 2002 in Anglesey when the 400Kv power line renewal was taking place between Pentir Substation and Wylfa PS. This photo was taken prior to a thunderstorm brewing up - thunder started and they all shouted to come down as fast as they could.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

OK, left is fairly easy. PL16 DD30, specifically the earthwire changeover variant.

 

Second one appears to be CS-PL1 D2. SEE PL2 seems to have been the same suite. Other Milliken PL1 suites used the later SS-PL1, the one with the funky S10 and D10 towers.

 

What is 3? That looks like SEE PL1(b), down-rated to a lower voltage and adapted. That would imply that more details are known about PL1(b) than anyone has thus far indicated. The industry consensus was that “PL1” and “PL1b” were the same, but that is not even remotely true. SEE PL1(b) is still around but entirely omitted from the tower bible.

 

(The final one is going to be CS-PL1 or SEE PL2 S2.)

 

On 04/10/2022 at 02:18, Pylon King said:

 

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Turns out I never posted any links to my pylon hunts. They were all on Imgur until I deleted my account in despair. I’ve started posting the walks to my own site, this time around with many more photos than I included on Imgur:

 

https://telcontar.net/Around/walks/pylon_hunts

 

I will be adding the remaining walks in the coming weeks.

 

As the winter comes to an end, the days get longer and there is the promise of leaves on the trees again, maybe other people would like to give this a go. Use the Open Infrastructure Map to find some pylon lines in your area—somewhere you can walk or take the train to, or better, both—and Footpath Map to plan out a walking route.

 

As a note, pylons have a habit of being in the distance. My new camera has a 12× optical zoom which helps a lot: the 3× zoom on my old camera was not quite enough.

[Pylon King]

On 07/01/2024 at 14:00, Daniel Beardsmore said:

OK, left is fairly easy. PL16 DD30, specifically the earthwire changeover variant.

 

Second one appears to be CS-PL1 D2. SEE PL2 seems to have been the same suite. Other Milliken PL1 suites used the later SS-PL1, the one with the funky S10 and D10 towers.

 

What is 3? That looks like SEE PL1(b), down-rated to a lower voltage and adapted. That would imply that more details are known about PL1(b) than anyone has thus far indicated. The industry consensus was that “PL1” and “PL1b” were the same, but that is not even remotely true. SEE PL1(b) is still around but entirely omitted from the tower bible.

 

(The final one is going to be CS-PL1 or SEE PL2 S2.)

 

 

The prototype for the third pylon is located just behind the Hornby Margate factory, 33kV route at Westwood and features  feeders to the substation opposite.

Edited March 31 by Pylon King

[Daniel Beardsmore]

1 minute ago, Pylon King said:

The prototype for third pylon is located just behind the Hornby Margate factory, 33kV route at Westwood .

 

What is the model based on: drawings, or the actual tower?

[Pylon King]

8 minutes ago, Daniel Beardsmore said:

 

What is the model based on: drawings, or the actual tower?

Both the  actual tower as well as the engineers drawings . Essentially a PL1 D30 design with 6 foot top (pyramid) instead of the usual 4 foot . 

Edited March 31 by Pylon King

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Just now, Pylon King said:

The actual tower and engineers drawings . Essentially a PL1 design with 6 foot top (pyramid) instead of the usual 4 foot . 

 

What do you mean by “PL1”? There is original Milliken (CS PL1, SEE PL2, also called CS-PL1), revised Milliken (most other original 132 kV national grid, e.g. SWE PL1, NWE PL1, SS PL1 etc, also called SS-PL1) and WGR PL1 (the first Wartime Grid Reinforcement scheme, using “WGR” towers, same type as Central England (CE) PL4). (Plus the various PL1(a) and PL1(b) in SEE and SWE.)

[Daniel Beardsmore]

“Popped down to” Crawley to cover SEE PL1(b) … (Actually quite a long train journey and the walk overran …)

 

DT90 (guessing; just outside Three Bridges station):

D60:

S2 (tower PYA5):

Guessing S30 (PYA6) — don’t have many PL1(b) drawings, just guessing from the angle of deviation:

Crawley is a great place to walk in the spring …

 

Photos are straight off the camera, no correction for exposure/colour balance etc. (The last one is too red — probably needed the sunlight white balance choosing.)

 

No double circuit in that area that I know of — those two towers above are part of a short run that terminates on a “PL7” DT just beyond the D60.

 

These are Callender’s towers — there has been a long-standing misconception (one that has even encroached into the industry) that “PL1” and “PL1b” are the same thing, but as you can see, Callender’s towers are quite different from GEC and Milliken. They do have the same spiky hips as PL1(a): the plan was to build the anti-climbing device into the tower body but in all examples I have seen, the ACD is fitted separately at a different position.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

By the way, Sarah Gray on the Pylon Appreciation Society group on Fakebook has often photographed a SEE PL1(b) DX (double-circuit transposition) tower in Garlinge, Westgate-on-Sea, Kent. I cannot trace her outside of Fakebook and on checking the train times, don’t quite have time at the moment to make that long a journey. I do what I can, but I can’t cover the entire of the UK … This is the tower:

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3701675,1.3502473,3a,25.8y,275.46h,94.01t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAeLtyTRdX0FHWrV6ZgAxQQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu

 

Sadly I can’t compare the DT at Thanet with the one I visited, as it has been replaced with a PL16. There is however some of that Callender’s-like 33-on-132 kV there (like what Pylon King modelled) and that DT is different. Sadly, even by Monkton, the line has become PL16.

 

Too bad, as I would like to improve my coverage of PL1(b) …