Service head query

[tlangdon12]

Attached is a picture of the service head at our house. Is this a type that the DNO should replace for free upon notification?

It looks very old, and may have a fused neutral line, I can't quite see through the sight glass to see whether this is the case. The conductors going to the meter look like they have some sort of fabric covering and look very thin compared to the modern meter tails.

The CU is a Wylex rewireable fuse unit that I'd like to get upgraded; one advantage of this head is that it appears to have a built-in isolator (lever on the top rhs), but I think it needs to go.

Thanks in advance.

Tony (Householder)

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Nope, just the French version of the Latin for light. I used to be a bulb in a former life. 150W GLS pearl BC, according to my birth cert.
L

hmm...
i think i may have been this in a former life...

 

[Knobhead]

Alfonso Reyrolle started the company making industrial switchgear. One of their best lines was HH switchgear, people think HH comes from its lay out. Reyrolle bought the rights to manufacture Holmes Hazmyer (Belgium) switchgear in the UK.

Yes Glenn I do like Reyrolle gear. The company is still going but only makes protection relays now.

HH gear. Sorry it’s a drawing, I took out loads of this stuff and never took a photograph.

Class “B” 11KV dual bus-bar horizontal isolation.

Class “D” We used it at 550V. I loved this gear, even though it tried to kill me!

 

[GLENNSPARK]

where was that then in pic 2 Tony?
power station?

 

[Knobhead]

The original maintenance manual. I’ve still got it!

Top bars were NWEB the bottom our power station.

With a bit of jigging about we could parallel NWEB to EMEB with our two power stations at 11KV.

We owned about 50 miles of OH lines. Part of the network had at it’s time the longest OH line span in the world.

 

[Dcf]

I used to work on an ex ww2 site that had a load of reyrolle switchgear in the main switch room.
wish I had taken pictures in the day ....work of art and totally bulletproof.
it used to be mostly simplex switches left over from dc days in my neck of the woods.
still in serviceable condition after 60-70 years believe it or not.
capstan casing was made out of beech if I'm not mistaken.
it used to make great firewood..
i used to see loads of it when I started out but I've not seen any in ages tbh
must be getting old

 

[Phoenix]

Thanks for the info, I remember now it was Reyrolle Parsons. He then went on to LSE (Lawrence Scott Electromotors I think it was). There was a couple of others as well but it was tough times then so he moved around quite a bit. Finished with GEC Alsthom I think...
I agree that old head would certainly be a talking piece if cleaned up and put on show...

 

[Marvo]

I’m interested in anything that’s electrical and old.

we would certainly be interested in giving it a home at Electrokinetica where we are starting to build displays of early wiring systems. I need to find complete sets of equipment from each decade - easier said than done these days.

I have a few south african equivalents, similar to the one in the OP but 60amp 3-phase cast iron with internal blade isolator and ceramic fuse carriers. Organise the courier and they're yours if you want them, I ripped them out of a small commercial installation last week and they're heading for the scrap bin otherwise. I'll post a photo of two later if can find my camera.

 

[Marvo]

Took a while but here's the photos;

 

[Knobhead]

Don't know about Lucien, but you can scrap that for me.

Interesting to see though, thanks.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Took a while but here's the photos;

View attachment 19795

View attachment 19796

what manufacturer are they....?
is it `the power & light company` or something?

 

[Knobhead]

Lucien,
Just spotted the link in one of you posts to DC meters. The Aron meter, I didn’t realise the Ayrton and Perry had evolved.

I used to have an apprentices text book from 1896, it showed the Ayrton and Perry dual pendulum gaining clock joule meter. My ex threw it out!

And before you lot start, it wasn’t my text book.

 

[shagbite]

Lucien,
Just spotted the link in one of you posts to DC meters. The Aron meter, I didn’t realise the Ayrton and Perry had evolved.

I used to have an apprentices text book from 1896, it showed the Ayrton and Perry dual pendulum gaining clock joule meter. My ex threw it out!

And before you lot start, it wasn’t my text book.

no, like you said, it was your apprentices.

 

[Knobhead]

Thank you!

 

[Lucien Nunes]

what manufacturer are they

Looks like they might be Sanders, at least one of them has the (S) logo but the other could be a copy made under license?
Might be something of a local speciality type made to a SABS standard, don't remember seeing exactly that pattern in the UK. Will get my catalogue out...
Could be half a century newer than the cutouts in the first pic!

 

[Marvo]

TBH I have no idea whatsoever on their age but I also think they're a lot newer than the head in the OP.









One of them is manufactured by a company called 'COOLEX' the other by 'SANDERS HUDACO'.