Now to some of the other points raised.

BJ,
Although it would be hard to find single-phase lines running for miles here, there are certainly quite a few short 2-wire spurs around the area. This part of Norfolk (county) consists mostly of small towns and villages, interspersed with open countryside (we're not talking anything like as open as Nebraska or Wyoming of course, but it has a fairly low density of population by English standards [Linked Image]).

The road I took this picture on runs about 5 miles across open fields, with just an odd house or pair of houses, church etc. dotted along the way.

Going back to the photos at the top of the thread, there is a 3-phase line running almost at right-angles across the road about 300 yards to the left from which this 2-w spur is tapped. The HV lines going off the picture to the right finish about another quarter-mile further on at a xfmr which feeds two or three houses, so this particular 1-ph spur is under a half-mile long. There are more similarly short spurs along the route feeding homes on this road and the tiny lanes off to the sides.

Trumpy,
It's a standard step-down xfmr to provide a 2-wire 240V domestic supply. The house is actually out of the shot on the opposite side of the road to the pole.

DJK,
These are standard 11kV lines which are used for local distribution throughout Britain. Power comes into this area on 33kV feeders, which is another standard distribution voltage here. (According to the local utility, there are still a few old 6600V networks in this region, but they are few and far between.)



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 03-19-2003).]