Just for fun, a couple pics of my office

[AT2796]

Just a couple pics I've taken,
Don't know what significance the manhole pic has, I reckon I just thought it looked cool from that angle.

The open wire truck however, that was a fun job. Around 2 miles of abandoned open wire over hill canyon and dale. 4 wheel drive access at best, had to wreck out everything, including the poles.
Took 3-4 days, my truck (pictured) and 2 other pickups came back loaded with cut up poles, insulators, arms and wire every day.
In the pic, on the left side of the truck is about a 200' block and tackle set up. The poles and arms were so deteriorated, that the shock of just cutting a 1000' span would usually start breaking stuff. Not very fun when you're up there on your hooks and stuff is starting to disintegrate!
With the block and tackle, I could lower each span gently causing a lot less stress on the pole and arms, the ground man would release the wire when it was slack and we could start over...
Ahhh, good times! I can almost feel the poison oak and horse flies as I sit here and reminisce!

[Ktownphoneco]

Thanks for posting the pictures, and explaining your job when you were cleaning up old abandoned poles and lines.    Most of us on this forum just play with old telephones and related equipment, and a few of the members who make up this group are, or were, employed by a telephone company, and they can probably describe the work you do and / or did in the past, pretty well.   
But as I mentioned, most of don't have any knowledge of exactly what telephone technicians do on a daily basis, or the different job descriptions that technicians can be assigned to over the course of their career.   I think most of us can probably muster up a basic understanding of what it is an installer does, or at least to a point, but I don't think there's a surplus of knowledge in what the other trades are within a telephone company, nor what it is exactly that they do every day. 
Now we know a little more about a specific aspect relating to what eventually happens to poles and lines that get abandoned as the years go by. 

Thanks again.

Jeff Lamb

[Dan/Panther]

I would imagine Bwanna Donna Hoffa would have some interesting photos to post also.

D/P

[twocvbloke]

Over here in the UK, if they consider a pole to be unsafe, they won't go up it, they just bring out the cherry pickers and work from those, but of course if you can't get to them without 4WD then I guess a cherry picker van would struggle to get to them!! I actually got to watch BT-Openreach replace poles on this street and they did as described here with block & tackle to lower the main overhead cables (they just let the dropwires to the houses drop to the ground as they were going to shorten them anyway), & then raise them back up once the new poles were in and secure, quite the laborious process when compared to what the average installer has to do to connect up a line...

[HarrySmith]

Very Cool! I for one have never seen the inside of a manhole, interesting. Thanks for sharing.
In the picture attached I have circled a large lump in a cable, is this a splice? I have been wanting to get an old cable with a big splice for my display.

[Key2871]

In the header, you said your office... Lol that's what I was expecting to see, not a UG vault. But it sounds like fun what you do.. keep on enjoying it and keep the pics coming, that's cool. But climbing rotted poles, no thanks.. I've been injured too much in my life from people who say, yea I can do that...
Nope, no more I'm retired from that game.

[AT2796]

Thanks for posting the pictures, and explaining your job when you were cleaning up old abandoned poles and lines.    Most of us on this forum just play with old telephones and related equipment, and a few of the members who make up this group are, or were, employed by a telephone company, and they can probably describe the work you do and / or did in the past, pretty well.   
But as I mentioned, most of don't have any knowledge of exactly what telephone technicians do on a daily basis, or the different job descriptions that technicians can be assigned to over the course of their career.   I think most of us can probably muster up a basic understanding of what it is an installer does, or at least to a point, but I don't think there's a surplus of knowledge in what the other trades are within a telephone company, nor what it is exactly that they do every day. 
Now we know a little more about a specific aspect relating to what eventually happens to poles and lines that get abandoned as the years go by. 

Thanks again.

Jeff Lamb

Isn't that the way of it?
We may have an Idea, but none of us really knows what somebody else's job really entails, the good the bad and the ugly!

[AT2796]

Very Cool! I for one have never seen the inside of a manhole, interesting. Thanks for sharing.
In the picture attached I have circled a large lump in a cable, is this a splice? I have been wanting to get an old cable with a big splice for my display.

Harry,
The circled item is just a roll of plastic. Just below your circle is a closed splice and the light is shining on an open splice.

Ken,
I feel you. I'm only 50 but after 30 winters out doors I am definitely feeling it, but the job is still fun so I guess that counts for something!

[HarrySmith]

OK, thanks. That shows how much I know. I did not know the splice was contained in a plastic case. Maybe I am thinking of the old days, the wires were sheathed in lead and wrapped up. No plastic involved.

[Key2871]

Having fun at work is everything. I'm sixty two, and worked out doors for the early part of my life, rain heat cold you name it. But then I got hitched and moved to indoor work for the most part. But I remember being a teenager and wanting to work for MaBell but never did. So I did the next best thing, I just worked on phones, read manuals from the bell system and followed how they did things pretty much as they would.
Using used bell parts. Had a blast doing it. But now I'm out of that game because I have a hard time getting around.
But I still enjoy working on phones and reading about what you guys still do.

[AT2796]

Need more fiber in your diet?
This is a 216 fiber splice I prepped today. The real beauty is that it is right across the street from the central office that I report to, about 1 mile from home. My wife and daughter came by to say hi.
Life's tough...

[HarrySmith]

Interesting. So that's what goes on inside the small phone co trailers on the back of the big trucks I see on the side of the road. Thay all have cables coming out of manholes and going in a small hatch in the back & rooftop A/C. I always wondered what they were doing in there.

[AT2796]

A few more good time pics.
First is a meter we use to test a new cable compared to the old one we would tie into.
Second is a little buddy I found.
Third is our 6x6 loaded up with 2 sets of climbing gear, 4 reels of aerial wire, line gun and other miscellaneous tools.
Last is a pic of me in the air that my partner took a few days ago.

[AT2796]

Before and after of a splice we rehabbed.

[Pourme]

Nice job!