Author Topic: Sweden and California  (Read 75718 times)

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AzCal Retred

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Reply #45 on: December 29, 2020, 10:46:02 pm
"Ya needs ta be 10% smarter than the equipment you operate..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpf_rhdV4XA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YALuzXO-Dkc
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AzCal Retred

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Reply #46 on: December 29, 2020, 11:10:39 pm
zimmemr @ # 43: Government regs are primarily lobbyist driven. The Power Biz makes money spending capital. They discovered that if they had to spend money to comply, it could come from Capital. Guaranteed 10.5% RoR for my old Utility. Coincidentally these rules by-and-large reduce liability risk for them also, as injuries from non-compliance gets them off the hook. My favorite scam of the Company was procedure writing. Exact rules of operation/maintenance activities that were written in stone but not updated as hardware & conditions changed. In theory a new-hire just had to read the procedures to successfully complete any task. Never did see any procedures for Management though...
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zimmemr

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Reply #47 on: December 29, 2020, 11:27:05 pm
"Ya needs ta be 10% smarter than the equipment you operate..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpf_rhdV4XA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YALuzXO-Dkc

Holy crap! That's hard to watch. Connecticut Light and Power was very safety oriented. We discussed safety before every job and every man in the crew had the ability to shut the job down instantly if he thought there was a problem. Furthermore every man knew what he needed to do, in what order and when, He also knew what PPE to wear. Guys still took short cuts, a good friend and an outstanding lineman went up one day to secure a primary wire that had fallen off it's insulator. He got in the bucket wearing a T shirt, a hard hat and leather gloves. As he grabbed the cable his left shoulder made contact with a live conductor. The initial surge blew his thumb off, and torched his left arm, which was amputated the next day. At his hearing he was asked what in his opinion caused the accident. He said and I quote " I got stupid."


zimmemr

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Reply #48 on: December 30, 2020, 12:44:23 am
zimmemr @ # 43: Government regs are primarily lobbyist driven. The Power Biz makes money spending capital. They discovered that if they had to spend money to comply, it could come from Capital. Guaranteed 10.5% RoR for my old Utility. Coincidentally these rules by-and-large reduce liability risk for them also, as injuries from non-compliance gets them off the hook. My favorite scam of the Company was procedure writing. Exact rules of operation/maintenance activities that were written in stone but not updated as hardware & conditions changed. In theory a new-hire just had to read the procedures to successfully complete any task. Never did see any procedures for Management though...

Our thinking in the trenches was that no matter what the rhetoric ALL safety initiatives were driven by the company's fear of liability. Despite their protests to the contrary all they really cared about was not being forced to pay out millions if someone got hurt. And yeah, I never saw any handbook for suits either. That being said I spent 32 years on the job and while I didn't love every minute of it, I did enjoy it, and there's a lot about it I miss now that I'm retired.


AzCal Retred

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Reply #49 on: December 30, 2020, 06:52:01 pm
I really enjoyed working someplace where everyone knew how to read & write and was willing to show up everyday like it was important. Like everywhere else though, there are always a few clowns that can't quite make the conceptual leap connecting "recreational drug use" and "steady paycheck". We were always glad to see them go. The last thing you need is someone a "little foggy" running the gantry crane or deciphering an electrical schematic to a live circuit. Power generation was the most fun, the equipment had the most variety, and it was great working and learning from the old timers. Hydro was amazing - the generation equipment vintage spanned from 1910 to 2020. We even had some carbon tetrachloride filled arc extinguishing glass-bodied fuses still in service. And the protective relays - many looking to be right out of a museum and still fully functional!

https://saskmuseums.org/blog/entry/glass-grenade-style-fire-extinguisher-bombs-are-they-safe

A trifecta of Pre-Unit Bullets: a Red Deluxe 500, a Green Standard 500, and a Black ES 350.


Stanley

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Reply #50 on: December 30, 2020, 07:29:50 pm
I wish I'd saved the photos my African friend sent me. He is a Capetown power plant engineer who discovered thieves had dug up all the grounding cables for the copper. They were almost a foot in diameter and were cut with an axe. A search for dead bodies was fruitless.
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Arschloch

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Reply #51 on: December 30, 2020, 07:39:52 pm
Copper theft is very common, it was almost daily order in Sweden too around the 2010-2014 years. Churches were a primary target, both the swedish evangelical churches are run by robber barons anyway implying guilt to everyone with extreme psychological methods to get their hands on a bit of cash, the taxes and government support is not enough of course. Additionally to every church there is a bank attached pushing again with draconian methods credit on people, ought to be investigated.


AzCal Retred

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Reply #52 on: December 30, 2020, 08:08:49 pm
Here's something to refresh those old Svensk memories - get a bottle of Akvavit (aquavit ? akevitt ?) and settle in for an evening (or two) with a trip down memory lane!   ;D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emigrants_(film) {Utvandrarna}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Land {Nybyggarna}

Copper theft gets really entertaining and rather Darwin Awardy when the crackheads switch to live conductors... :o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIk4JsxAfHc
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ad4_1484873755

A trifecta of Pre-Unit Bullets: a Red Deluxe 500, a Green Standard 500, and a Black ES 350.


zimmemr

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Reply #53 on: December 30, 2020, 08:13:49 pm
AzCal: We had five hydro's in our service area, I would only go there to service their power equipment but on one visit a work crew from GE was servicing one of the generators, we got to talking and he showed me the original build tag, the thing had been installed in 1917, and needed only minor maintenance work, that was probably around 1998 or so. Back then guys knew how to build stuff that lasted. A lot of the gauges and switches in those plants were original as well.

 Sounds like we worked for the same outfit ;) No matter how our crew shaped up there was always one asshole that called in sick every Friday. Shirked overtime and storm duty, and just couldn't give you a decent days work. Normally we were expected to do about 6 hours of work in an 8.5 hour day. If everyone pulled their weight we could get everything done and be cleaned up in an easy 5 or so hours. When someone screwed off it meant the rest of us sweated it out for the full eight.

As to copper theft, early on the company let us keep all the scrap copper and iron. Once a year we'd sell it to the local scrap yard and have a "copper party." Then one of the higher ups figured out what the stuff was worth and we had to turn it in and the company sold it off. In some locations we had a huge problem with theft, at our work center someone broke in, Loaded a pick up truck with scrap and drove it through the fence. He got it stuck in a field where we found it the next day. We also had a couple of instances where guys tried to steal copper that was still energized. That always made the news in a big way, I recall one of the lucky ones lost both arms. The others, their stealing days ended right then and there.

It's also a huge problem in NYC, thieves there strip the flashing off roofs and from around the skylights in old buildings, every so often one falls through the roof and that's that. I'm surprised it's an issue in Sweden, I thought they'd eliminated all of that sort of thing ;) Glad to see old fashioned theft is still a thing over there.


zimmemr

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Reply #54 on: December 30, 2020, 08:17:55 pm
Here's something to refresh those old Svensk memories - get a bottle of Akvavit (aquavit ? akevitt ?) and settle in for an evening (or two) with a trip down memory lane!   ;D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emigrants_(film) {Utvandrarna}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Land {Nybyggarna}

Copper theft gets really entertaining and rather Darwin Awardy when the crackheads switch to live conductors... :o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIk4JsxAfHc
 
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ad4_1484873755

Holy shit it looks like the lineman, and I use the term loosely, is using a wooden hot stick, and doesn't seem to be wearing much PPE.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2020, 08:33:15 pm by zimmemr »


AzCal Retred

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Reply #55 on: December 30, 2020, 08:44:09 pm
Blink reeel fast & turn your head. Works every time...

A sign seen in Jerome Arizona on a home made crane with exposed reduction gears by the operators' elbow, an open exhaust flathead V8 powering the monster and zero cab protection: "We hire only safe & conscientious workmen; If you don't consider yourself a safe & conscientious person, don't apply here." Management at it's finest...
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Arschloch

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Reply #56 on: December 30, 2020, 08:55:47 pm
Here's something to refresh those old Svensk memories - get a bottle of Akvavit (aquavit ? akevitt ?) and settle in for an evening (or two) with a trip down memory lane!   ;D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emigrants_(film) {Utvandrarna}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Land {Nybyggarna}

Copper theft gets really entertaining and rather Darwin Awardy when the crackheads switch to live conductors... :o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIk4JsxAfHc
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ad4_1484873755

...talking about Svensk memories. Anyone remembers this little robbery?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4stberga_helicopter_robbery

...only in sweden, beyond ridiculous.  ::)


zimmemr

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Reply #57 on: December 30, 2020, 09:01:46 pm
Blink reeel fast & turn your head. Works every time...

A sign seen in Jerome Arizona on a home made crane with exposed reduction gears by the operators' elbow, an open exhaust flathead V8 powering the monster and zero cab protection: "We hire only safe & conscientious workmen; If you don't consider yourself a safe & conscientious person, don't apply here." Management at it's finest...

Gotta love it!. Among my other interests, I'm a member of CAMA the Connecticut Antique Machinery Club. You should see some of the stuff we have at our museum. One of my favorite pieces is a 1929 Bay City Crane, When you swing the boom to the left you have to duck as it passes right over your head. Forget to do it once and you'll never forget again. When I was a kid I oiled on a 1962 P&H, as long as you stayed in the seat it was safe, but every gear in the cab was fully exposed and there were a lot of them. The guy I replaced had lost his arm in one of them. When I greased the thing I made sure the operator was out of the cab and that I had the keys in my pocket.


zimmemr

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Reply #58 on: December 30, 2020, 09:05:50 pm
...talking about Svensk memories. Anyone remembers this little robbery?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4stberga_helicopter_robbery

...only in sweden, beyond ridiculous.  ::)

You have to admire their initiative. That's about as a ballsy a heist as I've ever heard of. 


Arschloch

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Reply #59 on: December 30, 2020, 09:52:18 pm
You have to admire their initiative. That's about as a ballsy a heist as I've ever heard of.

Too good to be true. I would say it's ballsy, if it was not so smelly immediately followed by the advertisement banner "don't use cash, use digital only" with a picture of Björn Ulvaeus bedside it.