Sorry if this drags on a bit;
Personally, I always felt safer where OLE was involved than I did with 3rd rail, and I was a Nominated Person for DC electrified lines. Id prefer not to say why I felt unsafe with 3rd rail in an open post but if anybody it that interested, Ill be happy to explain it in a PM.
It is always the case with OLE that if you ask for an Emergency Isolation, 99% of the time you will get it. However, they WILL NEVER isolate a specific Electrical Section for you (see ** below) they always isolate everything from Feeder Station to Feeder Station or TSC (Track Sectioning Cabin) to TSC. That is all lines and sidings. They will not isolate a specific section save for a Nominated Person as there is always the danger that somebody asking for an emergency isolation could be mistaken about a location. So, they cut it all off.
Thankfully, Ive only had to get the OLE off in an emergency seven times. As a rule, it is off within about 15 seconds of making the request. However, anybody granted an emergency Isolation is always warned that All Overhead Line Equipment from XX Feeder Station to XY Feeder Station, all Lines and all Sidings is isolated and is safe to approach BUT IT IS NOT YET SAFE TO TOUCH IT and you have to repeat it back to the Electrical Control Operator. They do that for a number of reasons mainly the danger of the OLE being inadvertently livened up again by a train, any residual charge which may be retained until earthed out, and where Return Conductors (and particularly if they are associated with Booster Transformers) are involved, they can still retain a harmful charge even when the OLE is isolated and have to be earthed separately.
Ive been involved in six incidents of people electrocuted on OLE (one actually happened in front of my face, and the clip of the Asian man on the train roof currently circulating was tame in comparison). Fortunately only two were fatal, but it is appalling the site, the stink, and the filth which has to be scraped off the wires or whatever else they were touching afterwards. There used to be an allowance for OLE staff that had to get within two feet of live OLE it was only pennies but the Chief OLE Supervisor at Wigan at the time threatened to discipline any man who ever tried to claim it.
One of the kids involved in one incident was shown in the Childrens Hospital series, and he was one obnoxious little swine and he gave the Nurses hell.
In another incident of wires down, I was in Rail House when the phone rang and it was one of our more colourful relief Signalmen at a Local PSB. He said ey, the f*****g wires are sagging down out here. You just cant take a chance that he was buggering about. So I went up there and when I got there the wires were indeed sagging all the way along a Sidings known as the Crack. So I spoke to the ECO who told me that all OLE was live in the area and to bear that in mind if I went up to investigate. The Sidings was double line with a wall of about 6 feet either side so there wasnt much room. The further up the sidings I got, the lower the wires drooped until, at the top of the sidings, they were on the ground. I called the ECO on my old Brunel band 2 radio and the ECO would not accept that the Wires were down and in contact with the ground. He insisted they were live. I said I know they are f*****g live, Im standing a few feet away and Im telling you they are on the ground.
The ECO said Oh, blinking flip (or something like that Im sure readers can guess). I didnt want the power off (see** above), and I didnt want the whole lot stopped from the Feeder Station to the buffer stops just for wires down in a sidings that wasnt being used anyway so, they agreed not to isolate as long as Muggins remained on site to keep people away from it. So I was stuck there for a few hours.
You know when you are looking at something, and (apart from the bloody obvious) you can see something is wrong but you cant quite grasp what it is ?. Well I was in that position I could see the wires were down, but there was something else wrong also, and I was absolutely buggered if I could put my finger on it
Anyway, about 40 minutes later, a few HV vests appeared at the outlet end of the Sidings and started walking up the gradient towards me. It was a few OLE Supervisors. And when they got up to me they were scratching their heads and smirking too. Surprised at their reaction, I said what and one of them said that he wouldnt have believed that the wires could be touching the ground but still be live. The other one said to me you havent twigged on yet have you ?. I asked him to what I hadnt twigged, and he said Its been nicked. Still not grasping it, I asked what, and he said the OLE its been nicked (stolen). And it hit me like a brick. That was what I couldnt figure out: there was about 100 yards in total of OLE missing !. After a while it was established that during the weekend blanket isolation, someone had cut into the OLE with bolt cutters at the anchor point which made the OLE fall back (hence the sagging the Signalman had reported). Then they had helped themselves to everything in reach, right down to Dropper Clips.
For a while, we all suspected that a member of railway staff was involved as the theft took place during the weekend 18 hour isolation. But
a few weeks later, the same thing happened again. This time the OLE was live but the thieves cut in between the last insulator and the anchor point so they got away with being fried. However, it gave them enough of a fright to make them leg it when the OLE fell back and tripped with a spectacular display of sparks, and on the up side, they never tried it again.
Anyway, I hope people found this helpful or even informative. Again, sorry it dragged on.
G
