Quote:
Originally Posted by arjoll
For some reason that reminded me of a film we saw at intermediate school about construction of the transmission line from Manapuori to the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter... and sure enough, it's available online: https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-line-1970 |
That reminds me of a network of PAXs I looked after at Dinorwig Power Station in the late1970's/early 1980's - it was the largest civil engineering contract ever issued by the UK Government it the time. The Power Station was half a mile into a mountain
Elidir Fawr (924m - 3031ft high) and 2500 ft below its summit. The power station was built in two caverns nearly 200ft high, 75ft wide and 600ft long which I was lucky enough to see just lit with a line of lights along the roof before the multistory power station was built in them. One of the oddest places I've ever looked after a telephone system. There was a 100 line AT&E PAX just outside the main lakeside tunnel entrance with a 50 line AT&E PAX mounted in an old railway van body held down with steel cables at 650 m (2132 ft) above the old slate quarry on the mountainside. At the highest point . Then there was a 25 line AT&E PAX up by Marchlyn Mawr reservoir reached by driving up the tunnel from the 50 line PAX location (at the top of a vertical shaft used to get the water down to the power station below) to the upper reservoir of the pumped storage scheme. On the top left above the quarry
in this photo with the 100 line bottom left just outside the tunnel entrance.. The PAXs were all interlinked with tie-lines. The distance between them was very little as the crow flies but took some miles to drive up the mountain side on rough tracks. When the contract came to an end, I was contacted by the contracts MBZ who asked if I'd 'like the PAXs?' knowing of my interest in Strowger. Sadly I hadn't the room and they went for scrap
