weirdest things yo've seen shut out a circuit

[Larry the Lineman]

had a bobcat and a snake (what was left of the snake) twisted up in the jumpers of a capacitor bank

[topgroove]

watched a swan with a 8 foot wingspan take off in a resevoir. it hit the telephone cable so hard the primaries got together. it fell backwards into the water and after awhile swam away.

[wtdoor67]

Well there was the time an elephant climbed a tree next to the primary and leaned the tree over and knocked out the line. It was a peanut tree and he was just hungry. I wouldn't have believed it but I saw the tracks.

Then once a large flock of migrating chiggers (yeah, red bugs) lit out on the open wire and by their combined weight bagged the secondary together blowing the pot fuse. You had to use lots of bug spray on your pants legs or you would get eat up around that pole.

Then there was the time the kangeroo...........ah hell you're probably not interested. Anyway there was a cobra after him, but ah that's another story.

Ain't no different than that moose in the transmission line or that deer up a pole. Y'all saw the pictures too.

[lineman1010]

ya those dame elephants can casue alot of trouble i heard they were in oklahoma saw some in lowell the other day too they must be migrating now the weather is nice :D:D:D

[Pootnaigle]

Ummmmm Door the politically correct term is now CHIGROES !
I have had Chigroes and many of their cousins cause massive outages and then steal the copper wire laying on the ground, I once found a gay chigroe wadded up and stuffed inside a breaker cabinet inside a substation,He was quite nakid and messed himself. also managed to trip the breaker.

[Edge]

Ummmmm Door the politically correct term is now CHIGROES !
I have had Chigroes and many of their cousins cause massive outages and then steal the copper wire laying on the ground, I once found a gay chigroe wadded up and stuffed inside a breaker cabinet inside a substation,He was quite nakid and messed himself. also managed to trip the breaker.

Poot you crazy fugger you I ****ed near laughed to death.....


not sure about weird but the worse thing I ever had lock out a circuit was a preform I headacheaded of a tower... it drifted in the wind right into the three phase 'bution... the pisser was... the 3 phase belong to a diff ut than the one I was working on lol...

Edge

[loodvig]

Had a hawk with a snake is his claws land on the center phase. The snake landed on the road phase! They took out a 65k line fuse!

[Edge]

Had a buzzard lock out some 230 not to long ago... fuggin thing **** near welded the single endbreak shut...

[Edge]

24 oz beer bottle... shut 4 circuits down...

Edge

[MI-Lineman]

This is a long one so I'll keep it simple!

1. On the way to work in mornin,
2. R&R crossing,
3. line of NEW 65's with four gains,
4. Finest city of Detroit crew(tha's not saying much) holding a busted 65' up with cornermount,
5. Train with car hauler comin from chrysler plant,
6. Low hangin steel messenger,
7. One hell of a mess

It broke 2 more 65's, one 45'r on a spur, took out a couple Edison and city circuits(anything from #6 up to 4/0 copper)....OH AND THE R&R WAS NEVER NOTIFIED THE CREW WAS THERE!!:rolleyes:

wHAT A SHOW!:D

[Edge]

still think that the double deuce has got ya...

Edge

[MI-Lineman]

still think that the double deuce has got ya...

Edge

Alright, I'm hooked!:confused: How'd it go down?

[Edge]

Some of the guys on here that work for dominion might remember this... been a few years ago... but theres a little sub right off of the I64 corridor right up from the old 295 bypass ramp... some **** decided to toss out his empty when gettin on 295... the empty ended up in the sub... it hit the center phase bushing on the big mva sitting in there busted it to ****... locked out the station at the highside circuit switcher... and of course 4 circuits in da dark... all because of a fuggin drunk dumbass that could toss the empty in the back seat...

[MI-Lineman]

Some of the guys on here that work for dominion might remember this... been a few years ago... but theres a little sub right off of the I64 corridor right up from the old 295 bypass ramp... some **** decided to toss out his empty when gettin on 295... the empty ended up in the sub... it hit the center phase bushing on the big mva sitting in there busted it to ****... locked out the station at the highside circuit switcher... and of course 4 circuits in da dark... all because of a fuggin drunk dumbass that could toss the empty in the back seat...

That would have to be THE SHOT OF A LIFETIME!!

[LEAFMAN]

This didn't lock out the circuit, didn't even blow the fuse on the tank. There was a 25ft pole with a 37kva on double bucks that was probably 40yrs old so it was a low tank. Don't know how they got it up there or how they didn't get the prime drop. They put a shopping cart on top of the tank.:eek::eek:

[PA BEN]

Woodpeckers
squirrels
raccoons
seagulls
snakes
But at 2 am this morning I found a RAT on top of the transformer. What the hell is a RAT doing up a 40" pole?:rolleyes:

[cantwait]

You shoulda been in PA this summer we had rats all over!

[cantwait]

Actually not to offend my non-union lineman pals, we had SCABS all over!

[T-Man]

I had a rabbit at the base of the pole with the fuse down one sunny afternoon. I think a Hawk carried it up there then dropped it across the arrestor and the fuse went. I also had a Great Horned Owl twice both on Thanks Giving days where they came out of a pine tree thru close spaced Primary (routed around the tree on an alley arm) Something in the ditch along the road must have got their attention and Pow bang the line fuses went. Two dear beauties one had more than a seven foot wing span.

[RR E.T.]

had a bobcat and a snake (what was left of the snake) twisted up in the jumpers of a capacitor bank

we had a squirrell get into transmission breaker at one of our sub stations at amtrak and knocked out the whole northeast corridor thats from philadelphia to boston it acted like a chain effect knocking out one sub after another

[Patriot]

Just had this last night, an owl had a pheasant in his talons on top of a pole., He had dropped portions of the pheasants inerds, and it fell across the top of a cutout/arrester to a primary dip. Locked er out! And the bird was still sitting there when I arrived, eating the pheasant, I would have thought the flash would have spooked him. Or maybe it did and he flew back to finish his meal.

[MI-Lineman]

Just had this last night, an owl had a pheasant in his talons on top of a pole., He had dropped portions of the pheasants inerds, and it fell across the top of a cutout/arrester to a primary dip. Locked er out! And the bird was still sitting there when I arrived, eating the pheasant, I would have thought the flash would have spooked him. Or maybe it did and he flew back to finish his meal.

Maybe he was cooking it?:rolleyes:

[PA BEN]

It didn't shut down the circuit, but it was different.:D
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s276/PABEN07/1222091333.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s276/PABEN07/1222091333a.jpg

[BillyMac]

Ahh let's see umm... possums are good ones for it, snakes, the crow that puts a piece of fencing wire in his nest BBUUZZZ!!:eek: gecko's. One time a mate rescued a goanna from the top of the pole by taken the basket of the EPV up with the remote and he eventually climbed on in.;) Oh and stinking flying foxes, things are full of Lyssavirus.

[loodvig]

Ahh let's see umm... possums are good ones for it, snakes, the crow that puts a piece of fencing wire in his nest BBUUZZZ!!:eek: gecko's. One time a mate rescued a goanna from the top of the pole by taken the basket of the EPV up with the remote and he eventually climbed on in.;) Oh and stinking flying foxes, things are full of Lyssavirus.

Flying foxes? WTF is a flying fox?

[T-Man]

You guys must have rescued kitty cats from poles. . .I had to do that in the "Inner City" on a summer day. this was a while back and the pole was constructed with two 8KV feeders where you have the first gain with 2 phases on each side of the pole on a 11' arm and in second gain 1 phase centered below the top two on each side on another arm.

The cat was up there for a couple days the lady said. So I went up there and tried to talk/lure the cat over to me but it was just steping over the primary pins back and forth and I was thinking in about a second there would be an arc a loud screem and poof no more cat. . .

I know you guys are all thinking push the cat off the pole and be done, but I'd like to think I'm a bit more humane. . and the lady is standing down there with her sobbing son watching....

so I ask for a nose bag and I finally got the cat by the head in my rubber glove, The cat had all its claws stuck in the gauntlet cuff, but each time I tried to place it in the nose bag it would put it's feet on the lip of the nose bag and it wasn't going in the bag. . ..

I'm up a 50' pole in an alley next to this lady's house a three story building. I'm at or just above roof level so I get this idea to toss the cat to the roof and then we'll try to get it off the roof with long ladders, at least it won't take out a feeded and fry up there. . .

I ask the lady if It would be ok for me to toss the cat to the roof and she says do it! So. . . I yoho the cat to the roof. . .tiled with asphalt shingles the cat scratches for grip but looses and it slips off the roof and falls all three stories to the concrete right in front of the boy and his mom. I hold my breath and fear the cat is done for, but it hits the ground and does a "Fred Flintstone" peel out and darts under the porch steps. The boy follows the cats movement and the mom cuffs the kid in the back of the head and says "now go feed dat cat"

this boy dam near hit the concerete as hard as the cat did!

All in a days work. . . .

[Bull Dog]

A crane. I had line out, went to check, and found a Crane hanging from the phase wire. A single phase vertical construction with at least 5 ft between the top wire and neutural. He flew into the wire broke his neck just below the head and hung down far enough that his feet touched the neutural. He took a few shots and his feathers were fizzled. Looked weird at first glance. He was a big bird. Could have been a Heron or a Crane hard to tell.

[T-Man]

Bull Dog, I saw a crane hung up in the transmission on the east side of Hy 41 going over lake Butte de Morts near Appleton Wisconsin. I think that bird hung there for a few years, till it dried up and fell off. The problem is the Line was very visible but not accessible. An act of congress to block the Hy to set up to retrieve it and I think we didn't have a tall enough bucket for that back then. wern'tr so many activist old enough to make a stink abpout it then either.

Lood, I think Flying Foxes are Bats or in that family, furry red heads and bat like wings.

[Edge]

I saw a crane take out some 230 once... we had just built the line from a co-gen out to the sub some operating engineers where moving the big stick and burnt the gd bundle to the ground...

the next day we were restringing the wire... we had to put up markers on the line and there was a JL runnning the bigstick....

Edge

[Bull Dog]

Things are different now as you know. I think we probably bailed your ass out a few times. I enjoyed my time up there. You must be Public Service. If you are say hi to the midget that works out of Stevens Point. Great guy.

[loose neutral]

Had a bird get across 2 phases of 34.5. Blew both 30 amp fuses and smoked two cutouts. We showed up to find a blackbird at the bottom of the pole, well he was black when we got there, not sure what color he was before the flash. Went over to kick him into the weeds and he was still alive !!! His guts were hanging out and he was charred bald. We left him alone and about ten minutes later, he was gone. He was half way across the street still dragging his guts with him. We picked him up and took him into the grass. Again, looked for him a little later and again he was gone. We have pics somewhere, it was amazing. My foreman said " find that bird, we wanna hire him !!!" I think he went to work for Pike...... BAH HAH HAH !!!!:D

[BillyMac]

That's the one T-man.

[Joe Guy]

Which reminds me, what is the white stuff between Elephants toes???

Slow Oklahoma linemen. :rolleyes:

Thats alright... but i really can't compare, havent worked too often outside our country with states linemen. Did get to work with some in Florida when the hurricanes went through. I was just a young apprentice then

[kitejkoch]

Saw a flock of crows at the dump take out a three phase 1/0 vert. line after it operated a couple of times. some would land on B phase then some would land on A phase. It would bag down and make contact with the heads of the ones on B, One loud BURP from the line some would fly away, some (100 + or -) would fall. they would circle for a few mins. and then do it again. Hogs had some hot crow that day.

[spark and bark]

:confused:had a hotline hold on a feeder and we got a call from s.o. told us feeder was locked out. we checked everything out. ended up looking 6 spans down and saw something weird. A tent was blown up into 3 phase and locked her out. A friggin TENT! some kid sent it up in a backyard to have a camp out!

[thrasher]

About ten years ago we had a really severe windstorm go thru the area, lots of tree damage, lots of circuits out. We had lost all three circuits at our Courtland Substation and had lost SCADA to the station. The station was fed by a Dominion line then into our station. We figured it was probably the Dominion line out but sent a two man crew to find out and possibly ride thier circuit. When the guys arrived they called in that there was a barn roof across the station. I'm talking 50 ft wide by 70 ft long corrugated aluminum still atached to 2x6 rafters and framing. The entire roof had blown off as a single piece from a barn about 50 ' from one side of the station; it hit the radio tower for SCADA and then fell on the station. Actually there was suprisingly little damage, after we isolated and grounded everything we could think of we chainsawed the roof into pieces and lifted them off then dumped them outside the fence. The radio antenna was crushed, the lightning rods on the top of the steel box structure were mangled, and there were burn marks on the incoming highside line and that was all.

[Trbl639]

Had one once that thought was kinda funny..........had a 3 phase tap of a feeder out, was riding it and see a tree rat tail hanging off a CSP pot.........I cleared the pot and went back to re-fuse the line, and then go back to the pot, gonna cut a switch in on it...new Reliability thing.........anyway, when i get in the Zone, i can tell it's an old boar tree rat with his arms wrapped around a sow tree rat.................

Talk about some Hot and Wild Sex!!!!!!:D:D:D

[Hyper63]

Last year a squirrel on the tie switch in the sub shut down the town and the towns west and south. Had to remove the jumpers from the tie switch before it could be reenergized. then the 69 switch wouldn't close......8 hours double time....8000 customers.... 1 squirrels.

[knotskeart]

thrasher, bout 15 years ago had a similiar situation from windstorm. got called out at 2:00 a.m. to find cutouts blown on 3 phase feeding into chicken farm. drove in to find piece of aluminum corrugated roofing (about 4ft x 15 ft) stuck in between phases, midspan. with wind still blowing around 15-20 mph getting that roofing out from between phases was like fighting a giant razorblade.

[Pootnaigle]

i saw that same thing ( corragated metal) once on a trunk feeder but it was so far down the line i guess the feeder breaker saw it as resistance load and it just turned a very bright shade of red. hadda be 10 plus miles away from the station. after maybe 3 or 4 minutes the breaker would trip.

[lando]

Yea, I had a couple of squirrels locked up screwing deader than hell on a dist. GOAB once.

[woody]

Had a squirrel take out a sub a few years ago... long before that I was sent on a trouble call that had half the town out. The main feeder was locked out from the sub...after looking for a short time...found the problem. a squirrel had walked out onto a branch and brought it down on all three phases and after all three SHOTS the Branch sprang back up with the Squirrel looking like a cooked taxiderdmist dream!!! The branch was about two feet above the line...but it was all black and the little guy was cooked...locked on the branch with its little claws and mouth wide opened little tiny teeth(kinda like a RAT) died walking out over live lines. woody