A9 Pylons (sadly deceased), Mostly Pirelli PL1s

[robin]

As I've previously said in posts, I have a lot of photos of these pylons. I've been putting off creating a thread because I just don't know where to start. What I'm going to have to do is start a thread and just keep coming back to it. My favourite towers were the D60 angle towers so that seems as good a place as any to get started.

This D60 was up a hill at the side of the road at the point where the line crossed the A9 and went south towards Tummel Bridge. I had to climb up and jump over a concrete drainage channel to get to it-
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You can see the wire on the bottom right is earthed to the pylon body. I'm sure both circuits were already disconnected at this time. Here is the same tower zoomed in from the layby on the main road at a later date when the towers leading up to it were already dismantled-
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Where parts of the line were still wired after neighbouring towers had gone, the wires were anchored to big concrete blocks.

Further north (maybe 10 miles or so) was this D60 right at the side of the road (the one on the left, furthest from the camera)-
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The wires crossed the road to this one, then crossed straight back to a new style PL16 D10. This is only a couple of days before these towers were demolished. That's the new Beauly to Denny line on the right. The old tower nearest the camera was a suspension tower which had a load of extra cross bracing. I don't know if it previously suffered damage, but the wind howls across that part of the road when the weather is bad.

For a while I couldn't get any closer to the D60 angle towers further up because they were behind trees and miles away from laybys. Then one day I had cause to drive down a back road from Boat of Garten towards the back end of Aviemore. I came round a bend to see this lovely beast right in front of me-
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As you can see, this was at a point where the line was 132kV on one side and 33kV(?) on the other. At one time the entire length from Tummel Bridge was like this. The line was dismantled where the new line was being built first, this section might still be there but if it is, it won't be for long.

Another day, another detour. This time I was on the back road which runs from the location of the first picture down towards Tummel Bridge-
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Again, you can see the new line along side.

Hope that's enough to be starting with in installment 1.

[robin]

Ps- that last one I was thinking I should have lined the corners up like Paul, it looks shoddy. Also, the pylons are straight - it must have been me that was leaning to the side.

[yv47r]

Brilliant photos Robin. I don't think I have seen one of these D60s before but sad to see they have now gone swept away by the march of the modern SSE400 towers. It is good you have got up there and got a photographic record of the towers whilst they were still intact. Don't worry about getting the corners lined up but I do like to take photos from that angle as it looks nice.

Cheers Paul

[robin]

Thanks! There weren't many D60s considering the length of the route. For my next installment, the equally rare transposition tower. The first one I found by accident during one of my forays on to the back roads. This was about 10 miles north of Tummel Bridge and just across the fields from the first D60 in the pictures-
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The circuit on the right of this picture was modified to take 132kV so the top and bottom arms aren't as they were originally.
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You can see in that last picture one of the insulator discs is missing on the middle left arm. I fancy someone probably took a pot shot at it with a rifle, this being near some of the country estates.
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And finally a reminder of why they're no longer there-
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This was the next one up the road, right at the side of the A9-
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It must only be 10 or 15 miles from the first one. By my reckoning there would have been another one somewhere near Dalwhinnie, but the line had been modified for road improvements there.

The next one was also right by the road-side, although it was over a mile from the nearest available parking space!-
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I notice the first two had lightning conductors using extended peaks, but this one just has the conductor plonked on top
Originally, they were all like this. The circuit on the left was upgraded during the 80s, from Tummel Bridge to Etteridge, the location of this picture. You can see the junction tower in the background where the 132kV circuit went off to the west(ish), the 33kV circuit being fed up from wooden poles at the same location.
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And finally a close-up of the brown ceramic insulators on the 33kV side. Unfortunately, the light was starting to fade-
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They'd obviously re-wired it at some point and decided to do the middle arm a different way.

And that's it picture-wise. There was another one between Kincraig and Aviemore, but it was way behind trees in the middle of a field, at a really bendy bit of the back road. There was also one just on the other side of the Boat Of Garten substation. It's already on here somewhere- I believe that thread was the first time someone made the Emperor Ming comment regarding these towers...

[robin]

ps - if you zoom in on the third picture you can see a bracket across the middle of the top arm where the insulators would have been attached (I would guess) when it was actually a transposition tower. I've a pretty good idea where all the wires and insulators would have gone but how good would it be to see a photo or drawing of one wired up the original way. Plenty more pictures to come, just getting the easy (rarest) towers out the way first.

[albell1970]

Excellent photos. This was my favourite transmission line and I mourn its passing. My father was a skiing instructor so we spent a lot of time driving from Blackpool to Aviemore during the 1970's - 1990's. Before the line was upgraded to a 132kV double circuit in 1990, the Tummel - Glentruim section was entirely dual voltage 132Kv / 33Kv that still had the original, chunky ceramic insulators, complete with grading rings. The transposition towers had been modified on the 132Kv single circuit and just acted like a deviation tower with modern glass strain insulators. However, the conductors were still transposed on the 33Kv circuit and looked very 1930's Flash Gordon with those big loops of cable and fat ceramic insulators mounted perpendicular to the horizontal strain insulators.

[lesc]

Also Known As 'Emperor Ming' pylons!

Believe the serf known as 'LesC' got there first at Boat of Garten

Quite a few examples on here, not all on this dead PL1 set.

==
SHETL also had a fondness for these green glass / clear glass insulators and it shows - even on more recent things like that L3CDS set out of Tealing or that L2 / L8 set from Longannet - Tealing. An awful lot still survive all over the Scottish end of what is now Scottish and Southern.
==

L13 Denny - Beauly are grey ceramic.

Les

[robin]

The last one in the photos with the 33kV circuit on one side is, I believe, the same one you photographed from a layby some years ago. That section of road is now dual carriageway. The last time I was up there was last summer. The pylons north of Dalwhinnie were lying on the ground and that row at Etteridge were being pulled over. Incidentally, I managed to procure a couple of these blue/green insulator discs - they're surprisingly large when you see them close up. I wanted one of the yellowish looking ones as I reckon they're older, but I was never in the right place at the right time. There were also some on the 132kV side which were big brown ceramic ones, but were obviously new.
The transposition tower at Boat Of Garten is indeed on a different line, but I'm sure they were also earmarked for demolition, the circuits being routed on new wooden poles. I could be wrong about that (I hope so!).
I'm planning to come back on tonight, so it will either be D30 angle towers or suspension towers.

[robin]

Okay, D30 angle towers of which there were plenty due to the hilly terrain. Again, there were 132kv/33kV towers and towers which had been modified to have 132kV circuits on both sides. At the 132/33kV end-
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If the arms on the small side ended up on the outside of the angle, the bottom arm would have a brown insulator in the middle of the squared off end to keep the jumper cable far enough from the side of the tower-
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Lastly for these ones, I noticed this one across the fields near Kingussie which had wires feeding off to wooden poles, but zooming in revealed that it was the 132kV side which had small insulator strings added at the point where the wires teed off, not the 33kV circuit. I can only assume that after Etteridge, both circuits were running at 33kV-
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On second thoughts, I think they were maybe connected to the other side at one time. If you enlarge it you can see the other side is disconnected and earthed down the pylon and the 132kV side only seems to be connected on one side. Maybe it was still connected on that side to a substation further up the line. I suppose we'll never know.

And the 132kV towers-
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An elevated D30 in the distance...
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And close up-
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I took this picture because the road was higher up and level with the wires. This was the first time I noticed that the top of the uppermost arms have two lengths of angle iron running up to the bracket which forms the top of the tower. (I took this before some of the other ones before you all point out how obvious it is!)-
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These are two I had to walk past while trudging along the road at Etteridge to photograph the transposition tower. I was able to walk right past the first one-
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I actually witnessed that one being pulled over as I drove down the road that day. I was always surprised at how small these towers looked until you saw them right next to something. The next one was near a cottage and subsequently looked huge-
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You don't see it so well in the photo, actually. You'll just have to take my word for it.
On the other hand, maybe they are quite small-
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That's an SSE400 suspension tower alongside.

Linesmen removing conductors and insulators. It must be pretty grim sometimes going up there in sub zero temperatures etc-
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A nice, dinky PL1b-D30 looking like it might have been forgotten about-
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No such luck!-
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They tie a big yellow strap round the top of the tower, cut through the bottom of the two legs at the back and use a tractor to pull it over.

Lastly for the D30s, one which was lying in a field for ages. Looking up the inside of the tower-
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Bottom arm-
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Middle arms-
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End of an arm-
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Notice the yellow primer shining through. Views from the top only the birds would normally see-
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A couple of close ups-
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Hope that's enough for now. Next time will be the suspension towers.

[albell1970]

I found this photo taken in 1989, just prior to the 132Kv double circuit upgrade. This is north of Dalnacardoch estate where the line crossed the A9, heading towards Tummel.

flic.kr/p/FLPSe7

[albell1970]

I've still got a letter from Scottish Hydroelectric, dated April 1994, explaining the need to upgrade the Tummel - Glentruim circuit to 132kV Double Circuit, thus creating the original Beauly - Denny line. Further north, the line was split at Boat of Garten during construction of the sub station and the PL16 double circuit line from Beauly to Aberdeen in 1950.

I was rather surprised to discover the PL16 line that ran east to Aberdeen was never used! It was a back up line, but, in the 1960's, the 275kV line running up the east coast required upgrading substations along the route. Apparently, 132kV substation equipment had never been fitted at the Aberdeen termination point, so the line became redundant, but deemed far too expensive to dismantle until the 400kv Beauly - Denny project. Ironically, the remaining section from Cairnmore - Aberdeen is now connected to the system thanks to a nearby wind farm.

The letter concludes by saying there was a load transfer problem at Boat of Garten. This was solved with the the 132kV diverting west at Glentruim on the PL16 towers. The PL1 line became double circuit 33kV in 1991 from Boat to Newtonmore. The remainder of the line to Glentruim was single circuit 33kV that continued on wood poles from the transposition "Ming" tower prior to the PL16DT.

I read somewhere on the SSE website that the dual voltage 132/33kV line from Boat - Keith would remain in use, but that was a while ago.

[robin]

Thanks for that info. That explains the 33kV line appearing to tee off from the 132kV circuit. Is it the other PL1 line that has the transposition tower near to Boat Of Garten that goes to Keith? It would be great if it survived. Seeing that picture takes me back. That's what the pylons looked like when we used to travel up to the Black Isle for our summer holidays during the 80's. That section was dismantled in the spring of 2014, the D60 up the hill at the end of that row being the last remaining tower that side of the dual carriageway for about a year.
Incidentally, the newer style PL16s (JL Eve?) that cross the A9 at Greenloaning on their way to Denny have just been taken down in the last couple of weeks. I'll post photos in another thread.

[albell1970]

Yes, that goes north to Keith. It was part of the same line from Tummel before the PL16 Denny - Aberdeen was built.

Google Street view looking north into Keith;

htts://www.google.co.uk/maps/@57.5328328,-2.9487702,3a,75y,43.2h,92.08t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2uRhvWdH8ZihcJoA9K3-Yg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

At Keith substation, the line continues on modern PL16 towers, but as dual voltage 132/33kV. This unusual tower shows the 33kV being fed down to a small substation hidden behind the trees;

www.google.co.uk/maps/@57.6724326,-2.8117976,3a,50.5y,281.44h,93.78t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1skkv5jFBxgdtETv-8-NBHyA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

[zulumike]

Chaps, can you identify the route codes, by this method a historical picture can be established of their origins. zulumike.

[robin]

I'll have to get the hard drive out and zoom in on some photos. I'm pretty sure the 132kV circuits from Tummel Bridge up to the junction tower at Etteridge were EF 1 and EF 2, I'll double check that tomorrow. I still have pics on my camera of a tower further north where it was 33kV, but there is only an identification plate for one side, the side that was strung for 132kV - that one was AF 154. The newer style PL16s which have just come down which carried 132kV circuits from Tummel Bridge down to Denny were BRE 16 and BRW 16 at the point where they crossed the A9 at Greenloaning quite close to the Denny end of the line. This would mean that EF 1, EF 2, BRE 16 and BRW 16 have all been directly replaced by the circuits on one side of the new SSE400 line. Local news at the time reported that one side of the new line (which has twin conductors) would replace the old line while the other side was the additional capacity for expected future generation from offshore wind etc. A new line of wooden poles was already in place alongside the pylons most of the way from the Etteridge area past Newtonmore and Kingussie presumably to replace AF 154.