More from Alan Belson and his wandering camera:

Hi, i remember seing these in the French Mediterranian, Cote d' Azur, San Rafaël - Frejus.
Near the Boulouris camping where we stayed was also one of those high TX buildings.
A service man was working there and i managed to get a peek inside ( pre osh days ) the HV cables entered near the roof through the green glass insulators.

In it was a HV switch, HV fuses a big transformer and kWh metering, as well as LV fuses and cables.

I was probably about 17 then and didn't work in the electrical industry yet, so i cant give exact details of the layout.
See if i can dig up a photo i have somewhere.

Rod, it is not clear in the pic, [ because of the reduction in pixels needed to e-mail shots to Paul ], but look closely at the door. It is 'locked' by a short length of blue polypropylene binder-twine tied through the hasp!

Alan,

Is the original of 0637 detailed enough to read the plate on the door?

If so, feel free to send the full-size image of that one and I'll crop and post.

Paul, I reduce all my stuff to 800x600 now before storing/e-mailing and you can't read much more on the original than the post. I'm over there this arbo to switch on the power at a mate's holiday home and light the stove in the middle of July [ - jeez, if this is global warming you can stuff it up your jumper!] for his vacation and I'll get a better shot then.

Close-ups from Alan:







Click here for larger view

Thanks Alan!

I hadn't realized the large silver notice was just a resuscitation guide. I thought it was going to be something interesting like transformer specifications and tap settings.

The old signs are quite fascinating. At least we can surmise that originally there would have been an isolator on the low-voltage side of the transformer somewhere in there.

And what d'ya say folks, shall we send Alan off into the French countryside to find HV isolator no. 4691?

By the way, any idea what the HV level would have been when this was new? And what it is now? Isn't most local HV distribution over there 20kV these days?

Austrian transformer towers look pretty much the same. ONce they were often wood, now probably brick or concrete (stucco on the outside anyway). I know one where they changed to underground wiring and just cut the old LV cables inside and outside, but left short stubs through the wall haning on the isolators... looks nice right in the middle of the village. Have to remember to take a picture next week or whenever I come around again.