Linemen's Competition

Re: Linemen\'s Competition

semprebene, I think you're referring to what we call swiss tree climbers. That would be safer but it would be slower, and you have to remember that there is a lot of other stuff nailed onto that pole that they may have to step over on their way up.
 
Re: Linemen\'s Competition

I was teaching an Aerial Rescue course a few weeks ago and heard about this rodeo. The line man was tellin me how the do a rescue and how it is all about speed. He thought the techniuqes and protocalls I was teaching were a waste of time. Frustrating.
 
Re: Linemen\'s Competition

I did pole-line construction in the service back in 68. As a young man it was pretty exciting. And it's how I got my start climbing trees after being discharged. Line clearance trimmer, yeah. Climbing trees is much easier than climbing poles. That changed in 77, I went to work for Pac Bell, Line dept. Ft. Bragg. I'll tell ya, working on poles is really tough. I spent gruling hours in the spurs with no relief, doing service cut overs and cable tranfers. In 110 degree heat, in pouring rain. There's this thing called a lasher, K model, K is for killer I guess. A man was considered a wus if he couldn't pull it up by hand, without stopping, and set it on the strand. It weighed in about 100 lbs. They all laughed when I set a pass block to haul it up. Believe it or not, using pass blocks was not spec, meaning it's not in the book.

Some of those poles wouldn't have any climbing space you could set your spurs. Completely covered with risers. You'd be spuring up on plastic. Penetration maybe 1/8 inch. Talk about risk of cutting out! A couple times I set a climbline for fall arrest, but it wasn't spec either, and was considered a safety violation.

What I learned, or knew, about arborist work and climbing methods was all behind me. If I rappeled off the poles on a climbline it was consider a safety violation too. And two safety violations was all it took to be fired.

The linemans lanyard snap is traditionally hooked outward on the Ds. Man, that's just asking for trouble. I can't tell you how many times service drops or guy wires got caught inside my lanyard snap because of that. But it's "spec" to hook that way, and if you got caught "hooking in" it was a safety violation too.

With all the metal hardware on those poles a person can dull his points with one wrong step, or in one working session, and with those rock-hard gas treated Celon's it was cut out city every step after that. Once I took a file to sharpen my points and was repremanded that if I got caught doing it again I'd be fired. It was a violation for a Pac Bell lineman to sharpen his own spurs. You had to turn them in and get a new pair. But that didn't do you any good out in the field, with a dull set.

Cranking on chain hoists to pull tons of cable in place on pole transfers. Your feet would be in the air. Wrecking cable out and cutting the strand would release tons of load that would knock you out of your spurs if you didn't have it fully loaded in the hoists first. If the strand clamp failed doing that the pole would simply fall down with you on it.

Some of those poles were rotten and being held up only by the load of the guy lines and wires.

And talk about electrical hazards. I got jolts from hot poles, guy wires, capasitance and induction on supposedly "dead wires." It's the field effect.

Yeah, being a lineman was really something. I did it for one year and said to heck with it. Maybe it was just a regional thing, but their standard or idea of safety back then I considered nothing less than "Barbaric." Climbing trees is much safer and easier.

Jerry B
 
Re: Linemen\'s Competition

Wow Jer! Talk about a hard way to make a living. You're right, that kind of thinking really is "Barbaric". I really hope that the lineman's trade is safer now.

Boy you really have done some interesting work over the years. Very exciting stuff!

Chris
 
Re: Linemen\'s Competition

Looks like were chasing each other around on the forum, Chris.

Yeah, linemen have a whole different standard/attitude on the matter of what's safe. There's a lot of macho in the trade. Not saying there isn't a lot of macho tree guys out there, but macho or not the treeman generally is always tied-in. They've learned to rely on their rope, whereas linemen never have used it. That buck strap around the pole is the only support they have ever known.

Unlike the Pac Bell linemen the ones working for the Pacific Gas and Electric company worked under a different set of safety rules. So there isn't much consistantcy in the safety rules in the lineman's trade like there is with the Z-133 and the tree guys.

The loads the telephone linemen work with is measured in tons. Those 600 pair copper cables are heavy, man. Where as the electric linemen, excluding transmission workers, the loads they work with in distribution are light in comparison. The treeman generally has the option to take it light or heavy. I've always said, "I've never seen an accident happen from taking too small a piece."

In the last few years the PG&E linemen here have been working the 12 KV with rubber gloves, and the old timers have had a hard time adjusting to it because they spent most their career working it with hot sticks. That would be creepy, man. No matter how safe they say it is I couldn't do it. I've seen what it can do... to ever get that comfortable.

Jerry B
 
Re: Linemen\'s Competition

I guess we are chasing each other around the forum Jer.

I don't think I could work with either hot sticks or those rubber linemens gloves Jer. I too have seen the damage that an electrical injury can do. One guy I know lost his right arm and two fingers on the other hand when he was a lineman.
He's doing well now. He went back to school and got an associates degree in civil engineering and works for the NH DOT.

Linemen work is too scary of a job for me, but than again I'm sure you have some linemen who wouldn't be caught dead 100' up a tree with a running chainsaw.

I'm sure when you were clearing utility ROW for PG&E that you saw plenty of scary stuff too, probably on a daily basis. Do you think that is one of the reasons that they went with a chemical clearing practice of maintenence?

Chris
 
Re: Linemen\'s Competition

I too was a telecom lineman for 3.5 years and It is still the smae now as you described back in the seventies. The K lasher was replaced by the J and the G. The J is most common weighing about 75lbs. The new macho thing is not only to be able to pull it up to yourself. BUT to be able tograb it at the clamp, open both gates and swap it across the pole with the lash wire still attached one handed.

I cutout once on an ice covered pole and luckily landed chest deep in a snow bank. The next time I cutout was about 2 months later I bear hugged the pole for twenty feet. I was picking slivers out for 1 year!

I would have to say that poles and trees are equally difficult to climb...they are difficult in different ways.

I was a powerlineman for the last 2 years of my linesmans career. That is a different world. A very HOT world. All that FR and ruber we wore would get you soaked.

Stay safe out there!
 
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