A new image - or a new set of images?

[bignosemac]

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/pickle/ref_89.jpg

HST hide and seek? 

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/pickle/ref_98.jpg

Pangbourne?

[grahame]

Yes, Pangbourne.   And the "hide and seek" is between Thingley Junction and Beanacre.  I put that in to represent "trains in the environment" - I suspect we may have some issues with electrification equipment changing the look of some historic sites such as the entrance to Box tunnel for even.

[bobm]

Yes I must admit I am not looking forward to seeing the wires going through such places as Box Tunnel or over Maidenhead Bridge - but that is the price of progress.  As for Beanacre and Melksham there are already quite a few overhead wires - just that the voltage is a bit high to run trains! 

[grahame]

Oh - you mean this  :

[bobm]

That's the ones - and if you take a train from Reading to Basingstoke you can see the other end of some of the cable runs at Bramley!

[Rhydgaled]

While OHLE can be an eyesore, I've also seen OHLE that doesn't really damage the view very much. I hope they are very careful with the design of the GWML OHLE so it isn't an eyesore.

The very high voltage power lines, and their associated pylons more so, as posted by bobm, however are always horrid.

[bignosemac]

The very high voltage power lines, and their associated pylons more so, as posted by bobm, however are always horrid.

But they bring the juice to you to enable you to run a device to post on this forum. And no doubt do lots of other things. I'm assuming you're not powering your home fully from renewables or a diesel generator.

It's a trade off. We could have high voltage power lines buried in the ground but the costs of doing that are prohibitive. Both the initial capital costs and the maintenance. Cost which will be borne by the end consumer.

[Rhydgaled]

I'm assuming you're not powering your home fully from renewables

Sometimes we are, depends how sunny/windy it is

There aren't any pylons around here though, electricity is carried on those things which are like slightly-taller telegraph poles with a horizontal bar on top. While they are a little unsightly sometimes, they are much better than pylons. Where a row of pylons is necessary, they could at least design them better. Where there are so many cables that you have a double-row of pylons, might there be a case for burrying?

[Btline]

Durham Viaduct looks ok with juice.

[bignosemac]

There aren't any pylons around here though, electricity is carried on those things which are like slightly-taller telegraph poles with a horizontal bar on top. While they are a little unsightly sometimes, they are much better than pylons.

That'd be local distribution. You wouldn't want 400kV or 275kV on a wooden pole!

[ellendune]

Where a row of pylons is necessary, they could at least design them better. Where there are so many cables that you have a double-row of pylons, might there be a case for burrying?

I thought that was the purpose of the recent competition run by National Grid.