David Dahle's photos

I just liked the design of the angle pole on this old transmission line (its voltage has long since been lowered to repurpose it for distribution service). The leaning pole serves as a 'push brace' to offset the strain of the conductors as it makes a slight turn along the interchange. Push braces used to be a common construction technique, but today, a guy wire on the other side of the pole is preferred. That said, push braces are still used where a guy wire will not work due to the location. (As for the fire trucks, there is a fire protection equipment dealer just to the right)

A last look at the old North Central Electric 'Willow City' substation. A new sub was just to the west; it appeared as if the power company and the coop were going to switch over to the new sub after the holiday weekend. Indeed, Google Maps shows the site cleared except for the control hut and two new poles in place. The sub was replaced due to age (supposedly installed 1949, but I think it's actually a few years newer than that), tight clearances, and being directly underneath the transmission line (which really is a no-no). I haven't decided if I want to fully reopen this account, but I was over the storage limit, so I cleaned out a bunch of pictures that had lost their context in my haste to clean up before returning to Flickr.

This COULD be considered a substation... North Central is odd in their preference for pole-mounted transformers even on underground systems like here. Also, the power coming in from the right is 12.47kV and gets a boost to 24.9kV before going back underground.

THE last original pole on the company's westward expansion from their system at Carrington and Sykeston towards a now-gone plant at Washburn. This line was built in 1926, and here's hoping it will reach a full century of service (although... the company has slated this line for rebuild in 2026 - it was last rebuilt circa 1980).

All that remains of the school's original admin building (the present one can be glimpsed through the portal towards the left). After the O'Harra Building went up in the 1940s, the old admin building was used for classrooms until being condemned during the 1988-1989 school year due to a deteriorating basement wall, and was demolished in favor of a new building to the southwest. The portal was saved and reinstalled at the exact spot where it previously stood when the plaza was built.

Just a line I remember looking at when I was a kid.

One of several substations serving the granite quarries east of Milbank. The one pole adds a surreal touch; it likely is there to accommodate the occasional need for a mobile substation on site.

The main line corridor heading east from the main substation into the downtown area. This illustrates the limited capacity of the earlier low-voltage distribution systems (4160V in this case). If the system was rebuilt to a modern voltage in the 12kV / 13kV class, two circuits would suffice.

Just a complicated wooden substation, part of which serves to loop the 41.6kV transmission circuit through to the next portion of the transmission system. Given they recently cleared the shop to the left, I would not be surprised at all if the company eventually replaces it with a modern steel structure on that empty lot, as they are now in an upgrade cycle.

Old (right) and new (left) substations. The company is replacing the substation as part of an upgrade to bring the transmission line up to a modern standard. It is probably tricky as they want to change the distribution system voltage during the switchover. That's not even getting into the particular nature of line work at the transmission voltage - 115kV!

An incredible sunset I saw not long ago... For those looking for me - find me over on Flickr.

The 'Rosefield' 23.9kV / 7200V substation in the sunset of its life. It was replaced by a pole-mounted stepdown in 2021.

Dunno if anyone still visits this stream, but here's a pic of the Weber Ave. substation site as it is now.

A replacement transposition structure on the Lennox to Centerville line - one of the very last 69kV lines on the system with transpositions. The transpositions are among the very last poles on the line that still have crossarms, as almost all of the poles have been retrofitted with large armless posts like the other two. This line is old enough that the company is thinking about an eventual rebuild, and has already replaced the first segment out of Lennox.

An older REA line leaving the downtown area.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see this old 7-up sign still in the air, although likely badly faded.

An old heavy transformer bank apparently abandoned in place in favor of the newer transformer up above.

Interesting marking I found on the sidewalk one day when getting pictures of a few old buildings in one town.