Jump to page content

Project completeness

Contents

Overview

The goal for the pylons section of this site is to visually illustrate every standard UK tower type by way of outline diagrams. Some non-standard types are included but many will not be, especially the more ad-hoc towers.

For 132 kV and above, this site contains at least the majority of the standard tower series that have ever existed, although not all are fully illustrated or even illustrated at all.

For 33 and 66 kV, the tower series listed below are only those for which it has been possible to produce drawings. Many more series are known to exist but no means is available to name or illustrate them at present.

Photographic coverage is not included on this page. That is a secondary goal with much lower expectations.

Completeness chart

See the key below the chart for the details of each of the columns.

Designation Source Coverage Drawings needed Data needed Identity Notes FAO
33 and 66 kV (well-defined types)
Milliken L134 GA/ED Fair Transposition C, V Mfr. contract
Milliken E102 GA/ED Fair Terminal tower(s) C, V Mfr. contract
Milliken T163 GA/ED Poor All except D3 and D10 C, V Mfr. contract
SEE SL2 GA/ED Poor All except D60 C, V Scheme Possibly the same tower suite as SEE SL3
Blaw Knox K721 — None All C Mfr. contract
SEE SL3 GA/ED Poor S3, S20, ST, GPO crossing, terminal C, V Scheme Possibly the same tower suite as SEE SL2
SEE SL4 GA/ED Poor Line, D30, S60, ST C, V Scheme
J L Eve C15/C23 — None All C Mfr. drawings
Milliken E177 double circuit GA/ED Good D60 GPO crossing C Mfr. contract
Milliken E177 four circuit Other Poor All
SEE SL8 GA/ED Poor All except terminal C Scheme
Blaw Knox K1373/K4611 GA/ED Good Willoughby custom towers C Problematic
Blaw Knox K4611 single circuit Street View Fair All C, D
NWE SL4 GA/ED Fair Terminal C, V Scheme
J L Eve C333 GA/ED Fair Terminal C, A Mfr. drawing range
Abergavenny and Cwmbran Street View Fair All C, V Location-based moniker
Blaw Knox K9906 GA/ED Complete — C Mfr. contract
L4(m) 66 Street View Poor All C, A Official
110 kV (Northern Ireland)
Northern Ireland 110 kV SC GA/ED Poor All except SCT C, D Unknown SCT appears to be a standard 132 kV type …
Belfast four-circuit — None All C, D Route-based moniker
132 kV
CS-PL1 Other Fair All Problematic No trace so far of a B2 type (equivalent to D10)
SS-PL1 Various Good D30, S30, S60, S90, ST; 6 foot peak ST (e.g. Glenlee) Problematic This is a mish-mash of separate, related series
NWE PL2 GA/ED (Fair) Standard tower types Scheme In progress; recovered drawings only cover the extant, extra-tall towers
Rannoch–Abernethy Street View Good All C, D, A Route-based moniker SSEN
SEE PL1a Various Good All except D2, DT, S2; DX especially Scheme Believed to also be used for MEE PL1
SEE PL1(b) Various Good S30, S60, terminal towers Scheme
Spey Valley GA/ED Fair Short peaks; spires; 132/132 transposition Scheme Name taken from the drawings
CE PL3 Various Poor All except D2, D30 and DD30 Scheme
PL4/WGR double circuit Tower Bible Good Terminal towers Convention Redraw from GA/ED queued
PL4/WGR single circuit Various Fair All except S60 SEW Also known as PL9/SWE PL9, Blaw Knox K5297
Lydney Photos Poor All S Location-based moniker Nothing known about the reason for this line or its identity
PL7 Tower Bible Good Terminal tower adaptations Convention Redraw from GA/ED queued
Blaw Knox K5735 GA/ED Poor Single earthwire types; terminal S Mfr. drawings There is no actual evidence that these were ever constructed
PL16 (double circuit only) Tower Bible † Good DT, gantries, -DC types Problematic Redraw from GA/ED queued
Blaw Knox K1201 GA/ED Good SS10, SS60, S90, SS90 Contested PL16/STL1 naming dispute SSEN
Blaw Knox K1420 GA/ED Good Wood pole intermediates Contested PL16/STL1 naming dispute SSEN
Route XCW/Nant line tower Street View Complete GA/ED C, V, D, A Location-based moniker SSEN
J L Eve 0.4 (L16) Tower Bible † Good D90, DT90, terminal tower customisation Problematic No clear, single name for this type
J L Eve 0.175 GA/ED Complete — Contested PL16/STL1 naming dispute
J L Eve C772 Other Poor All Contested PL16/STL1 naming dispute SSEN
Inveraray–Taynuilt Mixed Fair D2L, D10L, terminal Route-based moniker SSEN
J L Eve C1415 GA/ED Good DT extended top crossarms Contested Drawn from C1824; PL16/STL1 naming dispute SSEN
Quoich–Broadford Street View Fair All D Route-based moniker SSEN
L7 Key diagrams † Good — Official Redraw from GA/ED queued
L4(m) Key diagrams † Good — Official Redraw from GA/ED queued
275 and 400 kV
L34 GA/ED Good All Scheme
L66 / L66/L89 / L1 Key diagrams Good Terminal Scheme
L2 Various Good All Official
L3, Blaw Knox Various Good All Official
L3, J L Eve Various Good ST, any gantries Official
Blaw Knox T1521 Key diagrams Unknown All Mfr. contract Scope of contract unknown SSEN
Blaw Knox T1648 GA/ED Unknown All Mfr. contract Scope of contract unknown SSEN
Blaw Knox T2175 Key diagrams Good — Mfr. contract GA&ED believed to be lost forever
L6, Balfour Beatty Key diagrams † Good All Official
L6, BICC Key diagrams † Good All Official
L6, Blaw-Knox Key diagrams † Good All Official
L6, J L Eve Key diagrams Fair All Official
L6(c) Key diagrams Good All Official
L6(m) Key diagrams † Fair All Official
L8 Key diagrams † Good All Official
L8(c) Modified Key diagrams † Unknown All Official
L9 (GA/ED) (Complete) — Official Processing of GA/ED queued
L12 Other Good ? Official Is there any visual difference with L12X?
L12 low-height Other Good All Official
Coylton–Auchencrosh Key diagrams Complete — Route-based moniker
L13 Public material Poor All Official
SSE400 Key diagrams Complete Lower-strength D Official SSEN
C-IVI-1 Various Good — Official Not yet constructed

Key

Designation

The designation chosen for this site; these range from official to completely ad-hoc.

Source

All the diagrams on the site should be traced from general arrangement and erection diagrams, but in many instances, less accurate sources have been used.

GA/ED
Diagrams traced from official general arrangement and/or erection diagrams. Older GA/ED drawings are prone to exaggerated dimensions for various tower components, requiring the diagrams on this site to be adjusted according to visual sources to be closer to the actual design. This is particularly problematic with tower peaks, especially Milliken PL1 suites.
Key diagrams
Official drawings in outline form, often known as key diagrams, outline diagrams or key erection diagrams. These are fairly accurate but may contain errors, especially where marked †.
Tower Bible
Either Jon Bruford’s original [Tower Bible] or Matt’s enhanced version (less incomplete than the original). The source material is in wireframe form only and (especially where marked †) inaccurate.
Street View
Google Street View, owing to not having neither unlimited time and money nor a teleporter. Tracing from Street View introduces various errors and does not allow the tower sizes to be determined.
Photos
Photographs only
Various
Multiple source types
Other
Other material, e.g. National Grid or SSEN publicly-available stakeholder material; these can be considerably inaccurate (especially where marked †).

Coverage

Coverage refers exclusively to the completeness level of a tower suite, regardless of the quality of source material. Coverage is relative to an estimate of what tower types exist within the suite, as this information is seldom available.

Entries in brackets (parentheses) denote the coverage status once all queued material has been processed.

None
No diagrams attempted due to lack of material and size data
Poor
Only a small portion of the series has been covered due to lack of material
Fair
Most tower types are illustrated but one or more important types remain missing
Good
All standard types are covered; gaps may still exist for less-common types such as gantries or crossing towers
Complete
Believed to be complete
Unknown
Insufficient data to determine what the tower suite contains

Drawings needed

This column indicates the towers for which drawings are needed, preferably general arrangement and erection diagrams. For towers where the source is already noted as an outline source (key diagrams, Tower Bible etc), then a general arrangement or erection diagram is needed for greater accuracy. For tower types where the source is only visual (e.g. Street View) or where there is no source at all, then any reasonable material is acceptable, as lower-accuracy material can be used as a stop-gap.

Needed less
Needed
Needed more
Work done

Data needed

Abbreviated in the table to save space:

C
Design conductor, preferably including the modern variant codename, e.g. 0.175□″ SCA (now 175 mm² Lynx ACSR); Lynx is assumed for all 132 kV types where not specified on the drawings
V
Design voltage
S
The contract/scheme (such as SEE SL1) for which the towers were designed
D
Tower type designations
A
Age of design

Identity

Per industry convention, the identity should represent the oldest scheme or contract for which the towers were designed. Determining this original contract or scheme is often impossible.

Official
The designation used on this site is the official designation for the tower series in question.
Mfr. contract
The series is designated per the manufacturer’s contract number (Milliken and Blaw Knox). Prior to the 1950s there is no guarantee that the same towers do not exist in a previous contract.
Mfr. drawing range
The series is designated per the manufacturer’s drawing number range (J L Eve) — the same tower suite may have multiple sets of drawings and there is no guarantee that the drawing set used for this site is the original set for the tower series in question.
Scheme
The series is designated per the scheme (e.g. SEE SL4, CE PL3) for which the drawings were produced. The same towers can exist in multiple schemes and there is no guarantee that the same tower designs don’t also exist in an earlier scheme.
Convention
Conventional name within the industry.
Route-based moniker
The tower suite has been assigned a name within this site based on the endpoints of the route due to lack of source material; for tower suites specific to a single line, these names will be retained for ease of use compared to memorising manufacturer contract numbers, unless there is good evidence of a more appropriate name.
Location-based moniker
As above, but where the original routes are not known due to partial demolition of the original line.
Problematic
One or more problems exist with determining the identity, for example industry abuse (as with “PL16”) or where more work is needed for clarity (K1373 and K4611 appear to be overlapping contracts).
Contested
The identity of the tower suite is disputed