Known affectionately as ARSS 's!! Auto reclosure section shunts.

They are the replacement of automatic break-makes found all over the OH system in remote areas which would reset themselves a preset number of times (usually 3) under fault conditions before locking out until manually reset. Usual cause was trees/conductor clash, so if the fault was clear ( ie the branch fell to the ground ) the shunt stayed in and everyone was happy!

Ours, in the Lakes, can be remotely switched from Manchester Control ( used to be Carlisle ) and are used to divert/isolate for linework, but they still drop out in fault conditions with the autoreset function.

Typical of this country though; if a crew requests a dead line, Manchester switches it, but a man still has to go and visual the unit to check it's open!! :roll eyes Same applies at 3.00am in fault condition - the lights might be out and the signal red in Manchester, but someone still has to check even if the ARSS is 10 miles from the tree branch hanging in the lines...

Oh well...better safe than fricaseed. Hope that helps a little [Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by uksparky (edited 07-07-2004).]

If hindsight were foresight, we'd all be millionaires!