Model Railroad – Power lines, Nostalgia and PCB

I was very fascinated by my friends realistic looking power line replica on his model railroad. Everything reminded me so much of my grandfather. Many people from that generation worked very hard and somehow things seemed different back then.

They seemed to me almost idyllic in a way, like the scene preserved in detail in the model railroad.

Grandpa always loved those glass electric insulators on the power poles. I’ve inherited a couple of them from him. They are a very pretty green and blue.

I remember all the stories of all the things that would go wrong with the transformers in the cans on those power poles. Grandpa worked with the dielectric materials that were inside those cans. Shortly after he retired he passed away from blood cancer. Most likely it was caused by working with the PCBs and high voltage lines.

Sometimes those cans on the power poles would explode spectacularly and blow the top right off. Apparently they weren’t too resistant to stray rounds or other hazards and little holes in them would drain off the dielectric material slowly or cause moisture to get inside the can. The high voltages could start vaporizing things and build up pressure. (I’m not too sure of the details or accuracy of these childhood stories that I heard.)

There are a few places in the world now where extended loss of electric power could be more than a simple inconvenience. We could use solar panels and generate more electricity locally and not have to move the electricity through high power lines as much. I think my grandfather and dad would like that. My dad died of cancer as well and I wonder a bit about how much he was exposed to PCBs as a child although I think the link is probably not significant.

Reading about the history of PBCs and their effects can be depressing but it is interesting and good to know about these things so we can avoid them in the future. At times we all do things that we may later regret and none of us are really able to fully understand the advanced issues that can happen as a consequence of our actions. I understand how people and businesses can purposely manufacture or dump dangerous chemicals into the environment knowing how they can be factors in the premature death of many individuals, plants and animals, however, I don’t like it.

In my neighborhood now all the power lines, phone, and cable lines are underground. The natural gas system seems to be working flawlessly as far as I know. PCBs are no longer being used anywhere because they were banned from manufacture but can still be present in aging buildings and are all over in the environment.

It is interesting for me to think about future generations making model railroads of our time frame and looking back nostalgically at them. I wonder what they will be thinking about the way in which we live now.

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Thanks for reading! I always value your support and comments. The pictures were taken by me with my Galaxy S9+. Text and graphics copyright 11/07/2018 lightsplasher & litesplasher.