Good pictures of old stuff!

[Steve]

Dont worry, none of this stuff is live.

Found in the cellar of an old building.

This appears to be the old distribution boards. The right hand side seems to be off peak supplies to heating, the left side is a 3 phase panel and a timer.

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Board and timer:

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Right side:

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Surroundings:

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You can see the distribution panel has been moved to the ground floor via the submain. They just left all this old stuff in. Right through the building is the old conduit, and even some lead cable which I think pre-dates even this installation.

In the cellar is some wooden moulding which looks a little like tramlines, with two recesses in it, all the corners are perfect 45 degree mitres, I have a feeling this might have been our equivalent of America's knob and tube cabling. There's also some metal conduit with old cloth cables hanging out of the ends. On some of the walls are old metal toggle switches, which feel like they would work perfectly if connected.

In the back warehouse upstairs is an old hoist machine, which was used to lift goods to the upstairs warehouse via the back doors.

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Enjoy!

 

[streetlighter]

Quality pictures they dont make them like the used to !
The wiring installed in wooden moulding was known as cap and case and was one of the first methods of installation pre-dating the lead sheathed twin cables.
I got this information from Tony Cables articles in PE magazine

 

[333rocky333]

Them fuseboards had no earthbars and it always intriqued me the ingenious ways so called skilled people found to connect the earth wires when T and E become popular and earths in conduit become widespread.

Them veneer clock mechanisms always looked classy and expensive

 

[JohnW2]

The wiring installed in wooden moulding was known as cap and case and was one of the first methods of installation pre-dating the lead sheathed twin cables.

I presume that most of the light switches in my house were originally wired with drops from the ceiling done like that - when I moved in (25 years ago), some of the mouldings were still in use with T+E in them. Some of the moudings still persist today.

Kind Regards, John

 

[SaladFingers]

I love old stuff. I encounter quite a lot, 30s and 40s switchgear, still alive and kicking, with asbestos rope gaskets, asbestos flash pads. Feeder pillars with asbestos in it.

I love working with it as it's so heavy, heavy gauge and in perfect working order with no reason at all to change anything.

I might have some photos somewhere of some of it.

 

[ricicle]

Those old Bill boards were/are a joy to work on
You couldn't even consider working live (not that I condone it anyway) due to those nice busbars under or above the fuses - two phases close to each other between L1 and L2 banks
There was usually an insulated shield that screwed in with hand nuts to cover them. No earth bar - cpcs usually wrapped around the frame fixings unless you had some savvy about you and fixed in your own earh bar !

And asbestos flash pads to boot

 

[Adam_151]

Not to forget the wax dots over the screws which often were melted off exposed live parts on the top of the fuse.

 

[sparkydude]

As Ricicle has mentioned above ,Please do not forget that the arc shields for these boards are made of woven ASBESTOS and need to be handled in the correct manner.

These boards need to be handled with care when removed and not just ripped off and skipped .

See below for the HSE approach


http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/a33.pdf

Nick

 

[kai]

The main incomer looks in a terrible state? it must be the original one!

 

[OwainDIYer]

These boards need to be handled with care when removed and not just ripped off and skipped .

Indeed, they should be offered on here to fusebox collectors.

 

[dinopower]

the incomer is rusty on the outside, but that is just the armouring, no purpose except protecting the cable, the lead sheath and the conducters and the paper insulation will be like new