Power Lines - replacement of conductors on 400 kV ZX line at Docker, near Kendal, Cumbria
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Published 2015-11-10
The aluminium conductor cables, glass insulators, line spacers and vibration dampers are renewed periodically - a major operation involving hundreds of men and months of work. The helicopter is used to survey the line before and after the job is done.
The engineers and cable riggers are highly trained and very hardy - working at height in all weathers. Their work reminds me of the engineers who built the Settle to Carlisle railway: "Up every morning lads, in wind, snow or hail, hold fast your hammers lads and lay another rail." Does anyone know any songs about the men who work on the power lines?
This video was made in the winter of 2012 with a Sony HDXR200E camera at Slough Farm, Docker, Although a tripod was used, the distance was over 200 metres, so the image is shaky at high magnification.
The banjo tunes are:
The Welsh Fairy Dance, Üsküdar, Bear Dance and Nigun Atik.
All Comments (17)
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I Was one of the SAP's involved with this job. My role was mainly with the complicated turn into Hutton Sub. Happy days, Best wishes to all involved. Cheers Martin
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I was once walking home from Woodford to Gants Hill on a very dark stormy night , the rain was horizontal and winds gale force , I could hear voices carried on the wind but could see no one , after a few minutes I realised the voices were coming from above me , it was the AMP’s engineers at the top of a massive pylon , they do indeed work in all weathers day or night
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L2 400kV from Carlisle to Preston' seen this line many times and part of it has rotated twin conductors.
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An excellent video. 💙 T.E.N.
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powered spacing chairs eh lucky buggers we had to pull our selfs and boy was it hard graft, then i went to holland and saw my first powered spacing chair, bliss lol
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I come from Hampshire just done the same replacement summer last year new cable and insulators 400kV line from Fleet to Lovedean
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Not the sort of job where you want to hear, "Oops!"
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Isn't this the music from Monty Python's Cheese Shop sketch? If so the video should show a man trying to buy a pylon from a pylon shop that has no pylons in stock....I think.
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Real men, balls of blue steel and hero's all. Men like that built empires. Not many feminists in that job.
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درود👍👍👍👍👍
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As an American, I"m curious about historical voltage selection: early CEGB lines were 132-kV and 275-kV single and double circuit. Since we use nominal voltages here, such as 138-kV and 287.5-kV, are these British versions nominal (sending end) or receiving end voltages (feed vs. source)? Anyone in Britain want to answer this? In the mid-1930s, the U. S. went to nominal voltages on nearly all types (low and high voltages). Did Great Britain do this at the same time during Stanley Baldwin's Prime Ministership or after?
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What is the tool called used to hold the conductors when the insulator is being swapped out?
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درود
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Are you sure this is 400kv the tower looks a bit small and underinsulated for 400kv? 400kv normally is on taller towers with two insulator strings and tri or quad bundle I thought?
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No ladder, loose earth's and leaving the conductor trolley, all things which are breaking the rules.
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That music make me sick
