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I’ve always enjoyed a bit of pylon spotting, I’m sure it’s because I grew up not far from Stocking Pelham substation, so pylons were always in eyesight.
I thought that my “hobby” of occasionally taking a few photos of towers had gone unnoticed, but my wife has quickly noticed how f#cking weird I am 😃
Wedding anniversary “card” from her this year was a photo of a tower and a link to the worlds power infrastructure network map: https://openinframap.org
My good lady is the best!
I think it's no longer active, but you might take some comfort that you're not the only one - https://pylons.org/
That map is quite cool, I stumbled across a stored energy flywheel in the the UK and London Underground's oil fired power station, and then down to Spain and found the mirror array that directs a killer beam of solar energy into a tower (and turns birds crispy in seconds)
Anyone found anything else interesting?
I looked for the pylon we used to play under when we were kids in a small village in Sussex. It isnt there. Do they move pylons or do I now need to worry that memories of my childhood might not be real… ?
Do they move pylons or do I now need to worry that memories of my childhood might not be real… ?
It's still there https://bystruparchitects.wixsite.com/powerpylons/mirror-wall
I looked for the pylon we used to play under when we were kids in a small village in Sussex. It isnt there. Do they move pylons or do I now need to worry that memories of my childhood might not be real… ?
Where in Sussex was it? I spent my whole life working in the electricity industry down there.
What I really like about pylons is how incredibly economical they are - not just that for the height and strength they use so little material but the materials and tooling are so simple, ubiquitous and cheap too - you could build one just like the one in the OP's pic with standard lengths of angle iron, a hacksaw, a drill and a spanner.
Do they move pylons
Yes, for instance round here many have been re-aligned to because of HS2
UK wiring diagram https://www.nationalgrideso.com/document/46876/download Figure 3.
My father in law was the safety commissioning engineer for the London ring and the first extension lead to France. That Ealing substation has reached capacity so further housing in west London is curtailed. You won’t see the cable from Iver (400kv pylons) to Ealing as it runs underground.
What I really like about pylons is how incredibly economical they are – not just that for the height and strength they use so little material but the materials and tooling are so simple, ubiquitous and cheap too – you could build one just like the one in the OP’s pic with standard lengths of angle iron, a hacksaw, a drill and a spanner.
I used to make kits for pylons.
The full size ones.
I working in Didcot gathering everything you need to make a pylon into a heap and then packing it ready to be transported to site. Good summer break job for two years.
But please can we call them towers or lattice towers 😉
Have you seen the new ones. They are visible from the M5.
... stored energy flywheel in the the UK...
These are becoming more ubiquitous because the speed and mass of wind turbines, (and obviously PV) isn't sufficient to maintain the 50hz frequency if it is disturbed. These units drag it back up or reduce it as necessary. They're not a storage system as such.
They’re an inertial energy store. However some folk are working on making the 50Hz requirement less of a requirement.
However some folk are working on making the 50Hz requirement less of a requirement.
Interesting, I've not heard that. Would be interested to know as frequency is pretty critical to consumer electronics working properly.
Drop me a PM - consumers will still get 50Hz (though given most of my consumer electronics will work in the States, you’d have to let me know what doesn’t)
These are becoming more ubiquitous because the speed and mass of wind turbines, (and obviously PV) isn’t sufficient to maintain the 50hz frequency if it is disturbed.
Now that is interesting, I had wondered about that - thanks. I had thought that newer turbines now used inverters to control the frequency
consumers will still get 50Hz
and that is clever too. I can't think of what would be very sensitive any more. I know that clocks used to care but most will be battery now and in then end all you care about is making sure the average over a certain period of time is exactly 50. For the rest I would have thought there would be a reasonable margin of error that would still work
It's not really that different from wanting an A2 poster of Forton Services for my office
There might be a name for the illness I have, my wife just calls me weird
One day while driving past a field with a couple of pylons in it I pointed them out to my then two year old son. Later on at some point we ended up watching videos on youtube of pylons being demolished. He loved them to the extent I ended up creating a Falling Pylons playlist on youtube (with 21000 views!?). At the time we had very poor broadband so I downloaded them onto my NAS and so he could watch them through the TV/RPi. He still watches them from time to time now. Some of the videos are actually pretty interesting! There's loads of pylon videos on youtube. The pylons in China are incredible!
Where in Sussex was it? I spent my whole life working in the electricity industry down there.
Hertsmonceux. There's a tiny green at the north end of James Avenue we used to play on, and I swear there was a pylon. According to the OP's map its now much farther North.
Original location is @50.8922724,0.3218373,65m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m9!4m8!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x47df42642ea86f5f:0xd2703dd1ad2fb8e!2m2!1d0.3241721!2d51.0536191!3e0">here.
@50.8921524,0.3218052,3a,75y,35.5h,82.52t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sI91_Tp85vnEuShazNzO4pQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DI91_Tp85vnEuShazNzO4pQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D35.91749%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656">It looks to be someones garden / allotment now. I remember we used to use the slope on the left where the white van is now to launch ourselves on home made go-carts.
They're re-cabling the HV ones which cross the A1 somewhere near the old Norman Cross Roundabout - fascinating to watch as you drive past them.
The two across the Thames are the most impressive. And tallest in the country at 190m. Carries 400kv above the Thames.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/400_kV_Thames_Crossing
The tallest in the world are double that height. The Thames crossing doesn’t make it into the top 10.
Four parter on YouTube
Four parter on YouTube
Thanks for that, just watched the whole thing - very good!
I can’t think of what would be very sensitive any more.
Apparently Sonic the Hedgehog was faster in America than the UK because of the supply frequency difference.
No one mentioned Eakring pylon training area yet?
Check the shadows for new pylon configurations tested.
That map ^ has my favourite local power station on it. I walk past it a lot with doggo.
A small 1mw methane / internal combustion engine power plant that had quite a bit of local opposition when it was first planned. It's run way past its design life of 15years (IIRC) and is still fairly silently running generating power.
The network of gas collecting pipes and land fill area now has quite a hardcore mountain bike trail network running over it - Horncliff Woods Rossendale.
@bigdean, I live at Kneesal and can see the training area from the garden.
Wasn't a reason for buying oldnick Towers but a nice bonus 🙂
@darthpunk you've probably seen this then? https://space-play.co.uk/products/mini-021-forton-services
I've been tempted to get the Trinity Square one quite a few times.
They also do prints. Should you need one for whatever reason.
We make the aerial marker posts for the old GPSS oil pipelines also shown on that map. White posts with a yellow angled top with a black line showing the direction of the pipe. See them everywhere.
The pipeline was secret since the 2nd Ww. Now it’s owned by a Spanish company.
@bigdean, I live at Kneesal and can see the training area from the garden.
Wasn’t a reason for buying oldnick Towers but a nice bonus 🙂
There are some nice quiet roads round that way.
So years ago we had a student who worked at Eakring when they were planning to test the T styled pylons, so as all lesson do we got to talk about their work.
Apparently they knew they wouldn't work, already had an alternative but still had to build install and test one to prove it.
Random fact, 0.5 miles from there is the Englands First onshore oil field
I did some training at Eakring.
My brother has a 'thing' for them, so I was aware of the pylons.org, hadn't realised it was defunct, but there is an active FB group you could join now.. pylon appreciation society
The new ones on the m5 are actually nice bits of structural engineering I did get a little excited and woke my wife up to see them as we drove past. She was not pleased
I was working with a Nationwide Access MEWP operator a few weeks ago. He had been working on those HInkley point connection ones for months. Sounds like there was a bit of a learning curve to hanging the cables as they were easy to load unevenly. They had to strap down the side that wasn’t being loaded.
It’s a shame they didn’t use them for the ones near where I work. We got old fashioned steel ones.
The new ones on the m5 are actually nice bits of structural engineering
Sorry if missed this earlier but can I get a junction number headed north. Driving from Cornwall to Cheshire on Wednesday, and I didn't spot them on the way down.
Around the Bridgwater junction. Across the Somerset levels on your right as you go North.
From just South of the Mendips it goes underground then pops back up at Portbury and goes over the Avon through Avonmouth to the connection to the rest of the grid at Seabank Power station.
It always seemed obvious to go up the Severn estuary but I am not a high voltage cable engineer so I assume there were good reasons not to do that. Shipping I presume.
Cambridge Science Park has had these for a while:
Pylon, Cambridge Science Park © Keith Edkins :: Geograph Britain and Ireland
XL75