Artefact or old junk?

[gph2000]

Last Friday I went exploring on a heavily overgrown part of the old Clara Banagher line. 

Right where I have marked with the arrowhead, I photographed a discarded telegraph pole top

Telegraph lines in Ireland only go along road way or railway lines, so its not likely to be something going cross country like ESB wires do. But, the stabilizer shown looks much to clean for something that is lying around for almost 60 years, having been installed God knows how many years before hand.

[Westcorkrailway]

47 minutes ago, gph2000 said:

Last Friday I went exploring on a heavily overgrown part of the old Clara Banagher line. 

Right where I have marked with the arrowhead, I photographed a discarded telegraph pole top

Telegraph lines in Ireland only go along road way or railway lines, so its not likely to be something going cross country like ESB wires do. But, the stabilizer shown looks much to clean for something that is lying around for almost 60 years, having been installed God knows how many years before hand.

Many of them stabilisers look like that. There are ones around my in ballinhassig that don’t look a day old 

 

the insulators that pe-date P&T are very valuable as the ones marked GPO are interchangeable with ones used in the UK and are rare 

[gph2000]

It looks like only one insulator survives.  I'd be thinking someone liberated the others and left this one since it is a P&T issue. Maybe when I am back in the area again, I'll take another look.

[Georgeconna]

I have an intact insulator from probably the Dungarvan line, Made by Bullers London. Hard to find a good one these days. Some work in Attaching the wire to the insulator too!

British Insulator Manufacturer - Bullers Limited (teleramics.com)

[Broithe]

I dealt with insulators in a previous life, mostly towards the higher voltage end of things - Bullers became part of Allied Insulators and we used a good bit of their output, as it was a little cheaper than the vastly better NGK stuff from Japan.

The old factory, with its very Stokey bottle kilns, would make a nice layout for somebody to have a go at.

https://www.alliedinsulators.com/company/history/

We did (inadvertently) blow up an insulator in a fairly dramatic manner in the mid 70s, whilst under test in Manchester, next to the Kellogg's factory - there was some damage to a lot of vehicles in their car park - and I've often wondered if we also contaminated their output, giving them the idea for Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, which were launched shortly after the event?

[BSGSV]

The remaining insulator is damaged, which is perhaps why it remains. The spindles are galvanised, so still fairly rust-free, as is the clamp for the stay wire, although the stay wire itself does not look so good. 

[Westcorkrailway]

I got a p&t one off sean brown in castlerea. He had a mighty collection of them too. 

[gph2000]

20 hours ago, BSGSV said:

The remaining insulator is damaged, which is perhaps why it remains. The spindles are galvanised, so still fairly rust-free, as is the clamp for the stay wire, although the stay wire itself does not look so good. 

The stay wire that fell across the masthead is rusted nicely, but the wire that lies near the stabilizer is in better condition than the image suggests. And as has been pointed out, the surviving insulator is incomplete.

[skinner75]

I must investigate the insulators on the head of an old telegraph pole that is laying on the ground in a friend's housing estate, next to the old Athlone-Mullingar line

[minister_for_hardship]

I've seen hundreds of GPO and P&T ones. The real rarity is a red coloured one for lines carrying electricity, saw one once ever at an IR railway station, still in place and unbroken but no longer carrying any wires.

[Westcorkrailway]

7 minutes ago, minister_for_hardship said:

I've seen hundreds of GPO and P&T ones. The real rarity is a red coloured one for lines carrying electricity, saw one once ever at an IR railway station, still in place and unbroken but no longer carrying any wires.

How about the brown coloured ones, I saw a few of them in my locality?

[minister_for_hardship]

9 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

How about the brown coloured ones, I saw a few of them in my locality?

Have seen loads of those too.

A link to nerd out on insulators here. https://teleramics.com/type/indextype.html

[Broithe]

At the high voltage end of things, brown would be the default glaze colour, but light grey ones would sometimes be specified for aesthetic reasons, where elevated insulators would be seen against a background of the sky and the grey would be less visually intrusive. You will also sometimes see clear(ish) glass ones, mostly as pylon hangers.

[Broithe]

This picture has appeared on eBay - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234541654256?

 

I remember that post and may have a 'real' photo of it somewhere, it was the heftiest pole I ever saw, with a base diameter of something like 16", maybe more, as it had quite a sideload on it, plus carrying the weight and windage of all those wires.