Re: NEWCASTLE ACCIDENT

["Greg Hunter" <gdhunter@ozemail.com.au>]

All the respondents have pretty well covered the process of removing power
from the overhead.
I can just add that any high voltage work, whether railway or other, is only
carried out after the equipment is ISOLATED & EARTHED.
Isolated means not only opening a circuit breaker by  remote control, but a
person actually seeing a physical open point  ie an open switch.  Earthed
means all the equipment is connected together and to earth.  In railway
terms this is 'connected to rail'.  Earths are connected at all possible
sources of supply and either side of the work site, so the workers can
actually see them.

All this may seem an overkill (pardon the pun) to an outsider, but if you
want to see the effects of touching high voltage have a look at

http://members.tripod.com/~StormTrooper_2/index2.htm

It shows a person under the influence of drugs climbing a pole and touching
16000 volts.  You need a strong stomach.

Train top surfers get the same buzz!!


Greg