L7(c) terminal tower under construction

[naughtyhorse]

Hi All,
Here are the aforementioned photos of the new terminal tower (in the through line condition) at Lower Shelton just off the M1 Junction 13.

They are posted on my own server, which is all a bit experimental and I'm not altogether sure whether or not it will be up 24/7 yet. But My VM account is playing up and I cant ftp anything to the server

anyway here goes....


Curse UNIX and it's case sensitive filenames
Center frame is the soon to be replaced POA116, which is a PL1a built in about 1933. Left of center is the bottom panel of the L7(c) E6 that will replace it.


Heres a sight you don't see everyday. The cleats on the stub. amazing to think that the entire load of the tower is carried on these few bits of angle. (I'm sure that washer laying on the trakway wasn't important )



different angle on the new tower, here we see the bottom section, a middle bit, and i think it's the bottom cross-arms.


closer shot of the bottom cross-arms, don't often see the glave looking so good.


ditto


Here's a guy from Babcocks(eves) and a bloke from PMC putting together the test rig for the foundation pile (which is what i was there to witness) and in the background you can see one of the sealing end platforms which are absolutely mahoosive when encountered at ground level

All in all a fun day out, and on friday i ghet to do it all again

[naughtyhorse]

I wonder what happened there???

[naughtyhorse]

err, may sound daft but can anyone else see these pics?
i tried to look from work, and there was nothing, but the IT nazis who have infected our IT system block all manner of sites - and being as incompetent as they are malignant they are prone to just block all php or whatever (yes i have tried pointing out who it is that pays their wages - but it didnt go down to well :-D)
it's working fine from home, but then i can see my own network ....from my own network!

[lesc]

naughtyhorse -

The Internet is seeing 192.168.1.101 (private network your end) rather than NTL's IP (their end), I'm with VM (ex-Telewest) 20Mb with a CM, dynamic IP and router and I use no-ip to keep everything pointing to my server.

www.no-ip.com/

with this you get an off the shelf name too for your IP address (------.servehttp.com or whatever you want from their list).

It's OK to use VM like this to host pictures from home, this was clarified long ago.

Les

[Flash Bristow]

Um... you have posted URLs like: 192.168.1.101/000_0007.JPG

192.168.*.* is a private IP address so it's only going to be any use to people who are on your private network!

Not to worry - mail them to me and I'll stick em on Gorge - or of course there are numerous free photo hosting sites out there.

Look forward to seeing them!

[lesc]

SNAP!

[naughtyhorse]

Ah thanks people. I'll look into it......

[naughtyhorse]

well that seems to work...
bit weird though, and not vey elegant
I can open a page typing jonbruford.no-ip.org/000_0007.JPG in the addy bar of the browser just fine, but it wont work in the message, I have to post the url as 82.22.45.194:1234/000_0007.JPG

hmmm, i'll just put it over there with the massive pile of other stuff i have to work out

[Flash Bristow]

Ooh, lovely pictures (I can see them now!)

Thanks!

By the way I semi-occasionally get requests from people asking how they can get hold of a whole disused pylon... which sounds like quite a task. But is there anything you can suggest other than "find a site where it's happening and befriend the site manager"?

[naughtyhorse]

Yay for me (by me i mean us) we fixed it! ROFL

thanks for your help Flash and lesc.

Flash :- getting an old pylon. it's not unknown for contractors to give the steel to a landowner - it's a pain for them to deal with and there is relatively little value in it. For a farmer, a couple of days with a gas axe and theres a good few tons of scrap steel.

In these environmentally aware days i suspect that obtaining a disused pylon by 'official' means would be pretty difficult - there is bound to be a policy somewhere about their disposal.

The other thing to consider is that if theres room, the preferred method of bringing them down is to fell them - which will certainly do substantial damage to the structure so if the person wanted to use the tower for anything other than scrap - you should suggest an engineer asses it's structural integrity (ooh i came over all star trek then!).

Then theres foundations. a few cubic meters per leg for a 132kV tower. thats in the order of 20 tons of ready-mix - and it should have a re-bar cage (a working foundation costs about £40k ). now a free standing structure would have much lower imposed loads, but you would still want a substantial foundation.

Then theres planning. it's hard to understand, but not everyone feels the same way as us about towers! and many of the worst offenders are planning officers :-)

so in short, the answer is speak to the site manager - its almost certainly the best way to go about getting hold of one... but remember a pylon is for life, not just for Christmas ;D

[Flash Bristow]

I did get an email from a scout group who used an old pylon for a climbing frame, I'll see if I can dig out the photos.

I know the big ones near me which were taken down for the olympics were just chopped up and winched onto a truck. I was given a nameplate but then told that they were meant to auction them off for something(?) so I shouldn't really have it, but as they'd promised... etc.

I imagine that if you did want to take one away, firstly you'd be looking for something small like PL1B, and secondly you'd need it to be dismantled rather than hacked up, so you might need to ask very nicely, and provide a large flatbed and team of strong mates to help remove it. Sounds like a big task.

But nonetheless people do ask me these questions!

[naughtyhorse]

But nonetheless people do ask me these questions!

lol i bet :-)


the trouble is that from a contractors position, chopping it down and leaving it to the farmer is the easiest (cheapest) option. In built up areas they have to be dismantled which costs a lot more - so they will want to recover as much cost as possible - hence the auction.

All of the contractors linesmen will have certificates to work on towers. No DNO will allow anyone without a ticket to climb a tower - under any circumstances. It's a health and saftey issue and as such completely non negotiable. I think it would take a deal of bravery on the part of a DNO or Grid member of staff to allow this to happen.

I can see the potential use as a climbing frame - though it makes my blood run cold to think of the potential danger even with just the bottom couple of panels in place, if you fall outside the structure, then you will be hitting steelwork all the way down. yuck!