Old switchgear

[tonys]

I’m not from a mining background but quarrying. My only association with mining was getting involved with a “lime stone mine” that was doomed to failure from the outset, it had to be proved it wouldn’t work!

I served my apprenticeship in the early70’s.

My reason for joining the board is the plants that I worked on used switchgear of which some dated back to 1935. I wondering if any of you had photo’s or information on old gear.
I did a lot of switchgear replacements and unfortunately didn’t photograph any of it. (I was moonlighting as a photographer at the time)!

Most of the gear was Reyrolle on the 550V side, and Ferguson Pailin on 11KV. The FP gear had had new GEC trucks fitted before I started my time. There were still 3 DMO trucks on site but they were the NWEB’s problem. All they did to update them was stick a label on the switch saying, “Operate smartly”!

On 3.3 we had Reyrolle & FP with the original DMO trucks, there was one MetroVic OCB with of all things a knife switch isolator attached to it! In fact on the 3.3 the most modern thing was a couple of 1960’s Long & Crawford isolators.

Just to add a bit of interest there was a 2 mile long 2.5KV OH line with Reyrolle Ex gear at each end. The 2.5 was abandoned when someone decided they needed the copper more than we did. All it fed was a 550V 300KVAR PF capacitor. The capacitor was to come back to haunt me later.

If anyone has any info or photo’s it would be much appreciated.
I’ll continue the story at a later time if that’s OK.

[John]

Oct 3, 2010 6:04:46 GMT -5 tonys said:

I’m not from a mining background but quarrying. My only association with mining was getting involved with a “lime stone mine” that was doomed to failure from the outset, it had to be proved it wouldn’t work!

I served my apprenticeship in the early70’s.

My reason for joining the board is the plants that I worked on used switchgear of which some dated back to 1935. I wondering if any of you had photo’s or information on old gear.
I did a lot of switchgear replacements and unfortunately didn’t photograph any of it. (I was moonlighting as a photographer at the time)!

Most of the gear was Reyrolle on the 550V side, and Ferguson Pailin on 11KV. The FP gear had had new GEC trucks fitted before I started my time. There were still 3 DMO trucks on site but they were the NWEB’s problem. All they did to update them was stick a label on the switch saying, “Operate smartly”!

On 3.3 we had Reyrolle & FP with the original DMO trucks, there was one MetroVic OCB with of all things a knife switch isolator attached to it! In fact on the 3.3 the most modern thing was a couple of 1960’s Long & Crawford isolators.

Just to add a bit of interest there was a 2 mile long 2.5KV OH line with Reyrolle Ex gear at each end. The 2.5 was abandoned when someone decided they needed the copper more than we did. All it fed was a 550V 300KVAR PF capacitor. The capacitor was to come back to haunt me later.

If anyone has any info or photo’s it would be much appreciated.
I’ll continue the story at a later time if that’s OK.

The FP trade name I've never heard of!! Ones I worked with years back were Reyrolle, Met Vick, AEI, and a few other HT OCB's. There are some photos on the Durham Mining Museums site, there should be a live link in the links section of this site to the DMM.
We did have some ancient HV switchgear at Clifton, but no idea after all these years what make it was, I know it went back well before the 2nd world war.

[tonys]

Finally managed to find a picture of FP gear. Funnily enough this was install within 400 yards of where I now live.

[John]

Reminds me of the main OCB's we had at Clifton in the back of the electric shop. Probably not the same make, I think ours were GEC, but it's been well over 40 years now, so the memory of them is pretty dim..

[steelworkssparky]

I've found this page many years after you have all stopped talking about the switch gear, I hope some of you are still interested? I started my apprenticeship as an electrician in 1999 in what was corus steel in port Talbot ex British steel. 21 years later I'm still working on the reyrolle 11kv and 3.3kv OCB's. They have certainly lasted the test of time! Some I hope will respond to the maintenance, annual rack out and earth down for inspection, pencil pump to remove the old oil into an empty drum.
Check the candles turn if required clean and dress before a fresh filling of mineral oil. Still going in 2020 gents! Hope you guys are too

[steelworkssparky]

I will take some pictures and post them if anyone is interested

[John]

I think every electrician who served his apprenticeship in the 50's and 60's at collieries that had been owned privately before Nationalization, remembers some old switchgear that dated back to the 40's and 30's.

Even oil filled transformers, which were being phased out for flameproof dry type.
In the early 70's I ended up at one of British Gypsum's gypsum mines, and as there was no heavy duty switchgear made that was appropriate for U/G use other than flameproof type, BG purchased theirs from the NCB as surplus used equipment. Some dating back to the early 1940's, old but worked for us.

Then the first colliery I worked at in NSW Australia was some 80 plus years old. I came across old transformers that had slate insulators that the 415 volt circuit breakers were mounted on!!!