Route XL at Corsham

[caldridge]

Hi everyone, for the start of 2016, I think I'll take some pictures of my local L3 routes, starting with Route XL.

Here's the route on Brockleaze near Neston, Wiltshire.

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The pylons making their way to Corsham.

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Here's the pylons on Leafield Road, they line changes to holding two cables on each insulator.

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The pylons head through Leafield Industrial Estate.

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Next the pylons head through MoD Corsham, which I can't take pictures of because photography is prohibited in that area.

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Well here's the pylons heading out of the area on Park Lane.

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The pylons cross the B3109 near Rudloe.

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And finally here's the pylons on the A4 just outside Corsham.

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The pylons head down the hill and change back to holding one cable on each insulator.

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After that the pylons head down into a valley, I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to them down, there doesn't seem to be many roads in the valley, I'll see if I can do another fieldtrip of where the route heads to next.

Enjoy!

Christopher

[caldridge]

Out of the L3 routes in my area, XL is the only one shown on the map.

[yv47r]

Good set of photos of the XL line Christopher. I have often wondered why it changes from single to twine conductor cables on this route? Given the insulators look fairly new within the last 10 years or so you would have thought the entire line would be twin all the way from Whitson in South Wales where the XL line officially starts (in reality it used to start further west maybe Tremorfa or Uskmouth) and heads to Melksham running on 275kV via the Severn crossing and Iron Acton substation.

Cheers Paul

[caldridge]

The route starts with twin conductor cables while heading from Melksham substation then changes the single at the first deviation tower, they changes back the twin as it heads through Corsham, then to single again as it heads out until it reaches Iron Acton substation, then continues from Iron Acton as twin.

I'll come back to XL another time, I might go and photograph the other L3 routes in my area.

Cheers

Christopher

[yv47r]

Maybe they ran out of twin cables LOL... or there is another more practical reason for swapping from twin to single back to twin then single then twins?! I am trying to remember what the XL line is in south Wales as it runs alongside the Severn but I think it is twin along to Whitson from memory.

Cheers Paul

[zulumike]

Yes Hello Chaps, This is just another classic example of the tinkering that has been going on over the years
which leads to questions that no one has definitive answers to. zulumike.

[caldridge]

I might like to photograph the route crossing the River Severn, I'm quite sure we can walk on the Severn Bridge as there seems to be a path going across it. According to the map the code numbers for the river pylons are XL 64 (Western pylon) & XL 65 (Eastern pylon). The Western pylon is on land but the Eastern pylon looks like it's on the end of a docks.

Christopher