pharrc20

Yes progress of a sort I guess - I still wonder how much it cost National Grid to alter the YV route in two places to accommodate the non-existant A6(M) bypass, which us poor folk in Hazel Grove will probably never see.... three new L8 towers, one L2 D2 moved, and the aforementioned removed 2x L2 D2s and D90 not forgetting the alterations made to the original L2 DJT tower to make it a bypass tower.... I believe the proposed tee to the King's Lynn power station was supposed to be L13 but it never got built it was only a short line ten towers at most. There is a new line down in Kent being built to form another cross-Channel interconnector that will feed into the grid somewhere - that might be L13s but I could be wrong... Cheers Paul

Looks like the DD60 in the first photo, then what I guess might be an alternative version of needing twin earth wires with stub pointed end cross-arms affixed to the tower peak; but only used as twin earth wires in your third photo but not in the second or fourth photos. Not quite sure why that would be. Of top of me head I can't remember if this appears on the diagram sheets or not. The first time I noticed these was when I was at Staffordshire University and there was a PL set running behind the halls to the substation nearby and I noticed the extra tower peak cross-arms. Again would have to look it up. Yes the L2 D90s are big beasties alright - sadly two were taken out back in 1991/92 near where I live - one on my local YV line 275/400kV was removed entirely as was in the way of the then proposed A6(M) bypass that oh look has never been built. The line was shortened and rearranged to tee up to the ZZM L2 nearby in a different position reducing the YV line by three towers 2 x D2 and 1 x D90 and a new L8 D55 inserted after the last L2 D30 then connected to a new L8 DJT replacing the original L2 D60 tower in the same position. The second one used to be at Macclesfield and when the substation there was relocated and the 275/400 ZEA line shortened a new L8 DT tower was added acting as a D90 in this case linking up to a new L8 DT90 at the substation itself - you can see this alongside the Macclesfield 'Silk Road' bypass just to the north of Macclesfield heading towards Hazel Grove.

I am not at home just at moment so can't check the paper file I have but can look when home on Monday to be sure. You might be able to modify the Milliken PL1 drawings but you would need to alter a lot of the cross-bracing I think. Someone will have them somewhere there used to be several people on the PAS forum that might well have had access to info and more diagrams but seem to lost them along the way somewhere. If you PM me I can see what I can do for you. Cheers Paul

I haven't come across any so far and there are none shown in the 'tower bible' that I obtained many years ago online and this is incomplete anyway as a lot of the diagram sheets must have been missing from the original paper file I guess when the person on the forum obtained it through his work I believe. All of the PL1b single circuit towers are missing for example as are all of the L2 and L3 sheets and special towers and tantalisingly they are listed on the index sheet but missing boohoo! Yes the L6s do look rather odd running on twin conds and single insulators. There are few now running with triple conds and single insulators - those that run near the M62 between Wakefield and Huddersfield are quite a recent change having been done the past couple of years or so. Cheers Paul

Yep the PL1 is called something like a D5S as those little extensions pointing down from the cross-arms allow a greater degree of angle change than the standard D2 suspension towers - I have seen one just like this near to Clifton substation just north of Salford on the Bolton line - you can see it in the distance behind HMP Forest Bank and I paid a visit to it a good few years ago and a chap on the PAS forum identified it as one of these D5 towers, although in this case it wasn't being used for its intended purpose. You sometimes see the PL1b single circuit design of S2 towers with identical downward extensions to permit an S5S configuration. The L6 is running with twin conductors with single insulator strings on the D2 t owers as shown and twin insulator strings on the deviation towers. Sometimes they downrate the insulator and conductor package from the original quad conductor bundles if the power flow does not warrant this for example. This might be the Exeter to Abham (mid Devon) line I guess? Cheers Paul

Ah right cheers nice one. One day I will resign a la Number 6 in The Prisoner and go off in a campervan around the UK in search of railways, model railways and pylons to track them all down... he says thinking wistfully.. be seeing you! Cheers Paul

Where are the second and third photos taken roughly? Yep defifintaly a D90 but not in use as that anymore. Cheers Paul

I think I know the one you mean - on the M62 between J33 and J34 for Eggborough there is an L6 line that comes in from the south but just before turns and crosses at a north-east angle. To the north in the fields is another L6 line that goes across to Ferrybridge. To me it looks like the line coming up from the south tee at North Emsall (with another L6 line) originally joined by a tee to the Ferrybridge-Eggborough L6 line hence the large DT90 in the field. But was later made into a separate line to Eggborough running parallel to the original line. Makes you realise how much the supergrid has been adapted over the years. Cheers Paul

Need to do more on the L6 range really but have seem some interesting ones on my travels. Do you know if they ever mixed the designs say using suspension towers from one design say BB but used BICC deviation towers? Plus there is L6M design too. Cheers Paul

I wasn't totally sure if there was a D90 in that Seabanks L12 line or not - probably my memory playing tricks. Generally D90s were avoided as they costed a lot more plus needed stronger foundations and more steelwork so were only used unless really necessary. Some L6s I can think of - one near to the M56 near Ellesmere Port where the Frodsham to Capenhurst set turns to head northish towards Capenhurst substation; one near the former Bold Colliery and Power station on the Liverpool - Manchester line - this is on the line that runs from Fiddler's Ferry towards the substation east of Liverpool area who's name escapes me right now as I type this - that is quite impressive next to the railway line - sometimes can see it in photos from Rainhill 1980. I quite like finding non-standard towers including that one in the photograph - in fact that is the only L2 D90 something I have seen like that. And yes it is plated up with notices advising it is a non-standard design. Fortunately just down in the valley at Kearsley was an actual L2 D90 that I could compare to make sure my glasses were working ok! Cheers Paul

Yes it is quite interesting to see how lines have been changed over the years even the 275/400kV Supergrid lines have been chopped and changed around somewhere or other. A good example are some of the lines that used to start at Monk Fryston substation not far from that popular railway spot Burton Salmon. Originally several L2, the L3 line to Skelton Grange, Leeds and the L66 line I mentioned last time started here when built in the 1950s but by the time the new Aire Valley power stations came along part of these were removed, altered and replaced by new L6 designed lines. For example the L2 ZP trans-pennine line used to start at Monk Fryston and ran all the way to just north of Bolton to a place called Greenmount where there was a tee junction with the ZQ line running from Daines (near Carrington) to Penwortham (nr Preston). The start of this line to be precise towers nos. 1 - 43 were removed and replaced by a new L6 line that started at Ferrybridge coded 4ZU. The change occurs at a place called Stanley near Wakefield. L6 quad line transitions to dual line L2 between towers and the ZP line continues on its way westward. Incidentally, this part of the line on the moors above Rochdale and Bury were the setting for that famous pylon slash love triangle film produced in the early 1990s "Among Giants" featuring the late Pete Postlethwaite as a team of misfits were hired to paint a load of pylons with some love along the way. This section of the ZP line no longer exists the route and the two circuits having been truncated at the tee junction just to the north of Rochdale substation where a branch teed off to feed the substation (still coded ZP) whilst the line continued over the moors to meet the ZQ at Greenmount. And not to spoil the film but the famous painted pylon was sadly chopped down some years ago ZP 226. That L2 D10/30 certainly looks odd indeed - I quite like the quirkly odd-ball one-off type towers - have a look at this modified L2 D90 on the ZQ line at Kearsley near the substation for example. Cheers Paul

Nice one. L12 D90s not many of those around. I think there are at least two in the L12 tee that runs to Seabanks power station near to Bristol. L2 and the L6 D90s are rather different. I quite like the L2 family must be my favourites. The L12 in your photo links into the remains of the L2 line running towards the York substation. Originally this L2 continued west to join up with the L66 line that used to run down from Stella to Monk Fryston now largely replaced by the L12 line in part. Cheers Paul

I believe it had something to do with increasing the earthwire capacity when the line approached a substation although not all of the PL lines seemed to have this. Two examples I can think of near me are the PL16 towers that come marching down the hill side near to New Mills South Junction to the substation at Gowhole - the remainder of the line from Stalybridge is standard Blaw Knox SWE PL16s. Another example can be seen just south of Knutsford where the PL7 line coming in from Carrington changes to the DD type towers to form the tee to the Knutsford substation then continues south-east towards the Chester railway line where it changes back to standard PL7 Watshams design towers - you can see this from the M6 near to Knutsford Services too. Ordinary double-circuit towers are classed as D and the Double earthwire double-circuit towers become DD Cheers Paul

Hi Suzie, for the higher voltage lines that is somewhat true as the original 275kV designs used cross arms that were stacked on top like the L2 in my photo tonight and this is certainly true for the slighly earlier L66 design and the later L3 all of which look very similar at a glance. The lower voltage 132kV tower designs from memory have always had longer middle cross arms and all of the PL range of towers designed by different companies follow that pattern (with one or two known exceptions.) Earlier and lower voltage designs usually operating up to 66kV mostly had longer middle cross arms too and some of these date from before the main National Grid built in the 1930s. On the higher voltage lines especially the L2 design it was found it could under severe conditions be prone to conductor clashing where say the lower phase conductors would clash or touch the middle phase conductors leading to an instant circuit fault and outage. And so the solution was to make the middle cross arms longer and this I believe was initially tried out on a variant of the L3 design and even an L2 design some of which still exist near Coventry. And so the L8 was developed and these are what you see in the photo posts above of the new towers being erected near to Coleshill/Hams Hall where the line is to be diverted to make way for HS2. The heavy duty L6 designs all have longer middle cross arms as do the newest style of towers that were erected in the Scottish Highlands linking Beauly near Inverness to Denny near Bonnybridge. HTH Paul

Some refurbishment work going on my local L2 line near to Middlewood station. Had a quick look tonight in between trains and the insulators have already been replaced the old ones having been on the towers since the line was erected in the late 1960s. Cheers Paul

Ah right makes sense. They tend to move lines years in advance of any major new roads or in this case HS2. Mind you the lines near me were altered in 1991 for the A6(M) bypass from Hazel Grove to Bredbury. Still waiting for it.... Cheers Paul

Must be something major to warrant diverting the line I can see that M42 J8 is nearby so maybe they are putting another junction in or something near to where the A446 runs roughly north-south? Cheers Paul

Not far from Hams Hall then. It could be a new short feeder route or a diversion of one of the L2 lines near here. Cheers Paul

Looks like an L8 D10/30.. is it near any other lines? Cheers Paul

The loaded trains are usually routed from Tuebrook via Liverpool South Parkway station, Runcorn, Acton Bridge, Hartford Jnc, Northwich, Altrincham, Northenden, Stockport, Denton Jnc, Ashton Moss Jnc, Brewery Sdgs Jnc, then Rochdale, Todmorden as per outward empties route. This is to keep the loaded trains off the direct Chat Moss line avoiding the passenger services. Cheers Paul

Appropriately Woodsmoor near Stockport opened in 1991 I think?

It is fairly common with 132kV or lower voltage lines diving under 275kV or above lines. There are a few places where 275s dive under 400s. Sometimes they just chop the lines around to suit. Cheers Paul

Aha yes this is indeed a 90 degree turn but there is more to this arrangement. Originally in the mid 1950s the 275kV ZL code line was erected using then new L2 towers. In the 1960s another line was built using newer heavy duty L6 towers - these are the ones you see near the Great Central Railway line and they run from Ratcliffe Power station towards Leicester then head west towards Birmingham. At the point that the L2 and L6 lines would have crossed the two lines were altered to what you see today so that the L6 from Leicester is now joined to the southbound part of the L2 ZL line. Hence the northbound part of ZL is now joined to L6 heading towards B'ham. You can see this part on north side of motorway if not treed up now. Cheers Paul

Just found a photo I took in December 1998 of the Ferodo advert on the over bridge at Hazel Grove. Funnily enough Malbern Windows seen on the advert on left hand side is still going strong today and I hear their jaunty jingle on the local Imagine FM radio station each day! Cheers Paul

Thanks Mark, I did the review for Rail Express Modeller and saw reviews in Railway Modeller and Hornby Magazine. Cheers Paul