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Joined: Dec 2002
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djk Offline OP
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Spotted this on the web
[Linked Image]

Click here for full size image

Some urban overhead distribution lines in Ireland.



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-04-2004).]

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djk Offline OP
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and In context:
[Linked Image]
Click here for full-size image


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-04-2004).]

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Good pics showing the details. This sort of complex arrangement is getting harder and harder to see in Britain, as lines have been moved underground over the years.

Any idea which city this is?

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djk Offline OP
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It's Cobh, a town about 15 mins from Cork City Centre.

Those overhead lines are pretty common in urban supplies in older non-central parts of Cork (and elsewhere) and in the older parts of the towns around the county.

In general overhead cables are only seen in places where electricity was retrofitted. i.e. they were built before the turn of the 20th century when electricity began to become common place in homes. The street in that picture would date from the 1700s-1800s. Although again, it would depend on the area. Since the late 50s all supplies have been universially underground.

Generally, in city centre areas the lines are underground.

Not 100% sure what era the cables in that picture date from.

You'll also see the same arrangement running on wooden poles. In many cases the stack of wires has been replaced with a single run of heavy quadruplex.

Personally, I think the quadruplex stuff looks far worse as even though it's a single bundle it's far thicker and dark black colour so it stands out from the background. Those old stacks just look kind of quaint and part of the street scape. They're not particularly pretty, but they're just part of 20th/21st century life.

There is a gradual process of undergrounding where it's economically viable and where the disruption caused is outweighed by the benefits of putting them underground. So, they might get done while an area was being given a face lift, repaved/resurfaced etc..

Also, new connections to exsisting overhead systems are made by running a duct to the nearest pole and up the side of the pole for about 12ft. Overhead drops aren't generally used. The underground sections must be run through approved round red ESB ducting. Burried armoured cable isn't allowed anymore.

Those poles don't look too bad when they've nice flowers / a palm tree [Linked Image]

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djk Offline OP
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[Linked Image]
Full-size image

we're really into flowery shop fronts...

[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-04-2004).]

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On my map it looks as though Cobh is pretty much on an island.

Those bright shop fronts in assorted colors look typically Irish, at least to English eyes. [Linked Image]

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I notice the service wires go down a wall. Here in Austria we usually have a piece of iron pipe with isolators sticking out of the roof, usually right in the center of the house. The wires go straight down through the roof in conduit.

BTW, something's wrong with that thread my Netscape displays it far too wide. I'v eto scroll in every line to be able to view all text. It's almost twice as wide as my 1024x768 monitor.

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Not a problem with your browser -- The images DJK linked to are actually over 1500 pixels wide.

Dave,
I hope you don't mind but I've taken the liberty of editing your posts to link to reduced-size images to make thread-viewing easier and to reduce download time. I've kept links to the full-size versions there -- We wouldn't want anyone to miss the details of the power lines. [Linked Image]

By the way, I see the French tourists were there that day! [Linked Image]

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Quote
Not a problem with your browser -- The images DJK linked to are actually over 1500 pixels wide.

Oh, _that's_ it! I've noticed the problem with several threads, but never that bad, and I never really thought about it.

The digital images I've been posting lately were severely downsized, the original images were something like 56x44cm print size. My software (Graphics Converter by Lemkesoft - nice tool!) has got a command "Scale with previous values" and that's what I've been doing the last few weeks.

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djk Offline OP
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Old service wires here often follow the lines of the house along the wall.

They terminate on 2 or 4 (occasionally 3 or 5) insulators usually just below the eves of the house, although in this case they're coming in at the second floor level (that house is 4 stories high substantialy higher than the distribution pole on the street) There's actually no risk of touching those cables unless you were really trying very hard.

Other old houses have the insulators located on one of the chimneys above roof level and the cables come down across the roof on the outside and into the attic through the eves.

From the insulators the cables were usually layed either

1) Along the side/front of the house following the ledges/plasterwork and entered through a hole drilled at the top of the front door frame. (old houses often had the meter located just inside the halldoor)

2) They enter the attic through the eves / facia board.

They were even consealed behind painted exterior plasterwork in some old buildings.

Any surface cables tend to be painted the same colour as the building so you can't really see them.

In terrace houses (where the houses are attached to eachother at both sides) a 3 phase drop often comes into one or both gable ends of the terrace. Cables then run along the length of the terrace just below the roof level feeding single phase power to each house.

ALL modern services and a large % of older ones come in underground even if the local distrubution is done on an overhead system.

A duct is run from the house to the nearest power company box or pole. So the cables would run down the side of the pole to a duct which would start about halfway up the pole and continue underground to the meter box on the exterior wall of house.

Overhead cable drops are not normally installed anymore.

Also, overhead drops with individual cables, like the one pictured, are increasingly rare.

You'll normally see the 2 or 4 individual insulators on the wall and an insulated duplex or quadruplex cable anchored to one of them.

Also some old underground services come up to a box on the side of the house. Cables from that box then run along the walls / into the attic, just as if it were an overhead service...

[This message has been edited by djk (edited 05-05-2004).]

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