Identifying House Phone Wires NTL Underground Cable

[securespark]

Yes, it's a bit worrying to watch. When I did a rewire in Bristol, the DNO swapped out the cast head. They smashed at it with a lump hammer!

 

[SUNRAY]

Yes, it's a bit worrying to watch. When I did a rewire in Bristol, the DNO swapped out the cast head. They smashed at it with a lump hammer!

Ouch

 

[securespark]

Dunno whether they have changed their procedures since. This was 1998.

 

[Adam_151]

AFAIK the procedure is to undo the screws and then use a hammer to knock a plastic impliment into the casing join to separate the two halves of cast iron leaving the cable surrounded by the bitumin that was poured in, which is then slowly cut away, I can imagine that if it doesn't want to separate they might be a little more violent with it then the official documents deem necessary

 

[RF Lighting]

In my area (northern powergrid) the DNO will not replace iron clad cutouts live anymore. The procedure is now to dig up the PILC external to the property and cut it. Then do the cutout swap and joint the cable back together afterwards.

I also remember watching a jointer remove the casing and pitch from a live iron clad cutout with his hammer back in the day.

 

[Adam_151]

I'm not sure if its changed round here, but I think the usual thing used to be that the SP ones were often changed live, whereas the TP ones were made dead. I know of one situation where a TP one was to be changed in a commerial premises, it was all planned for a saturday morning, pabvement outside was dug up to expose the cable, then the whole job had to be called off, the servcie cable ran too close to the building foundations and there wasn't enough room to be able to joint it. I don't know what the eventual outcome was, but I expect it was a few months delay and a bigger hole with the cable jointed further back and possibly a new servciecable into the building from that point onwards.

Northern power grid can be a bit of a pain to deal with sometimes, and I never can work out quite where the NPG / WPD (former EMEB area) border is, there are certainly areas with a lincolnshire postcode and address that are within old YEB area!

 

[chivers67]

I've worked in the Past for NTL & Telewest. The Siamese Coax/Telco cable is supposed to be buried in a Green conduit, trouble was back in the day contractors we're paid per job and threw them in too quick often without conduit or often laid in the conduit for the customer to bury. I've seen a few cowboys out there back in the day. Initially it was just a Cable TV network with one product to install then a Telephone was piggy backed in and then a Broadband product too.

Seen people literally through a cable over a roof to install at the back of a Terrace!

 

[SUNRAY]

Seen people literally through a cable over a roof to install at the back of a Terrace!

That is something that I really hate to see and it seems to be such a common thing for Sky dishes. Along the road from where my daughter used to live is a 3 story block of 18 flats, all the living rooms and main bedrooms are on the north side and the dark grey slate look roof seems to be smothered with white spaghetti which is then tyewrapped to the black rainwater pipes.