When Mike Green and I discovered and began research on this transmission line our original goal was the obtain an example of R. Thomas & Sons "Bach Patent" U-928 insulators installed in 1902. After a long hike along the line, pieces of other early Thomas insulators appeared including what looked like a large glazeweld unit and small cemented multipart. Too few pieces were scattered across miles of hilly terrain. Even fewer pieces of the Bach insulators could be clawed up which led to the conclusion the Bach insulators were removed and reused elsewhere right around 1904/1905. It was at this time the Thomas U-963A was installed, a large glazeweld piece similar to the 1904 catalog Thomas No. 8 insulator. Pieces. For miles of hiked line, it was all small shards until a wetland area between two hills revealed significant shards shown here. All nested together and not carried off by the rise and fall of water, the whole insulator is missing about only 1/3 of the top skirt. We also turned up two examples of the unknown cemented multipart now known as the M-3041. Two were discovered miles apart tossed so far off the right of way that heavy maintenance equipment never broke the insulators. The example in my collection has small pieces missing from the top skirt while Michael's example has the bottom skirt cleaved off. They were installed in 1906/7 with the U-963A or as replacement for them. [id=458612596] |