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Author Topic: did you know . . . .  (Read 3076 times)

Offline tschmidlin

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did you know . . . .
« on: October 26, 2011, 12:32:55 am »
Did you know that when a truck takes out a telephone pole, the wires vibrate over a pretty big distance?  I was a block or so away when this happened, walking underneath the wires.  I heard an odd noise, like a ping, and then the wires started flapping and clapping together.  I looked up and saw smoke coming from the top of one of the poles, and then ran across the street to get out from under them.  There was a couple more pings, I think it was some transformers blowing.  No wires came down though, and they had power restored in 3 hours.

Shortly after - the pole is hanging above the truck by the wires


About 90 minutes later:
Tom Schmidlin

Offline rabid_dingo

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2011, 12:37:45 am »
Those Wire men have nuts o steel!
Ruben * Colorado :)

Offline euge

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2011, 12:44:11 am »
I keep thinking of cans being connected by a string...
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard P. Feynman

Laws are spider-webs, which catch the little flies, but cannot hold the big ones. -Anacharsis

Offline punatic

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #3 on: October 26, 2011, 01:32:35 am »
Those Wire men have nuts o steel!

+1
Linemen are a breed apart.  They regularly work out in weather that has many of us hiding underneath our beds.
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jaybeerman

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2011, 01:53:35 am »
Is that 2 trucks in the picture or a truck and pup (a pull behind dump trailer)?  I'm trying to envision the accident and can't make sense of what the driver was doing other than cutting that corner by 20 ft.  Anyhow, yeah telephone line (power line, steel cable, guitar strings, whatever) vibrations are cool.  As a kid I saw telephone lines as a potential stringed instrument for some giant creature - plucks telephone pole with left hand, pulling the strings to tension just in time for the right hand to come crashing down into a jam that would make __________ (insert favorite band, Black Sabbath, Deftones, etc) proud.

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2011, 02:09:07 am »
Yeah, it's a double.  They're doing a bunch of construction near work, I'm not impressed by the drivers.  After the accident they had to reroute, and one got stuck on a street he had no business driving down.  They had to stop traffic so he could back all of the way out.  That one might not have been the driver's fault, but the accident sure was.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline eltharyon

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #6 on: October 26, 2011, 05:58:01 am »
2 winters ago we were out shoveling out of a 21+inch snowfall when a tree branch broke down the street and sent the wires overhead whipping.  My dad and I ran like hell, figuring they moving pretty good and probably brittle from being cold. The wave went down the whole street, it sounds pretty cool.

Offline pinnah

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #7 on: October 26, 2011, 06:10:44 am »

About 90 minutes later:


Ain't America grand?  Man are we spoiled, and we don't even know it.

Offline 1vertical

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2011, 08:24:05 am »
That is a  spooky haloweenish story Tom, dang I think that you are one lucky dood
That "ping" could have easily been a "Pow" as the different elec. phases contacted
each other and the resulting force could have parted the wire bringing you great detriment.
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2011, 10:43:52 am »
That is a  spooky haloweenish story Tom, dang I think that you are one lucky dood
That "ping" could have easily been a "Pow" as the different elec. phases contacted
each other and the resulting force could have parted the wire bringing you great detriment.
Yeah, fortunately no one was hurt.  I guess that's why this didn't even warrant a mention in the news. :-\
Tom Schmidlin

Offline corkybstewart

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2011, 11:12:17 am »
A few years ago when I worked as a consultant in the oilfield I was out at a job and decided to take a walk when I had some downtime.  Cruising down the dirt road I kept hearing a clicking and humming sound.  Then I found a live power line that had fallen and the dirt road built on top of it.  It had probably been that way for several years at least.
Life is wonderful in sunny White Signal New Mexico

Offline 1vertical

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2011, 11:30:27 am »
As a kid I saw telephone lines as a potential stringed instrument for some giant creature - plucks telephone pole with left hand, pulling the strings to tension just in time for the right hand to come crashing down into a jam that would make _BOC_________  proud.

"With a Purposeful Grimace and a Terrible Sound He Rips the Spitting High Tension Wires down.........
GODZILLA "
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

Offline punatic

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #12 on: October 26, 2011, 12:33:24 pm »
IRON GIANT eats substations for breakfast!
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Offline dbeechum

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2011, 12:41:47 pm »
SUPERMAN!
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Offline Slowbrew

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Re: did you know . . . .
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2011, 12:46:44 pm »
Power lines do some interesting things now and then.  When I was in tech school in Kansas City (circa '84) there was huge ice storm that knocked out power for a week.  During the storm my roommates and I sat outside in the rain under umbrellas and watched transformers explode all over the neighborhood.  It was like the 4th of July.  "Look!! a red one!!!"  Yes, there may have been a little ethanol involved, why do you ask?   :D

Very cool to watch happen but not so much fun to not have power for 6 days.

Paul
Where the heck are we going?  And what's with this hand basket?