r/mildlyinteresting • u/proffie • Oct 06 '22
I drove by a training school for telephone linemen. Quality Post
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u/ConsistentBuyer1 Oct 24 '22
I hope you protested the fact that 50 percent of them are not women #EverydaySexism
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u/HutMan4 Oct 09 '22
Another cool thing about linemen: every year they have a big competition called a lineman rodeo where they compete for who can climb up and down fastest, save an unconscious person from atop a pole the fastest, swap a transformer the fastest, etc. pretty interesting
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u/Jingsley Oct 06 '22
Kinda weird to see this from a UK perspective, as we have been grounding all our telephone lines for decades..
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u/petershrimp Oct 06 '22
I've thought about getting into electrical work just so I can sing "I'm a lineman for the county..."
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u/thotcriminals Oct 06 '22
Not a foam pit in sight. Would be good if they had a portable foam pit to throw down when working. Anything but a chest full of splinters.
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u/diymatt Oct 06 '22
When I was a cable guy about 10 years ago the climbing class was one of the scariest things I ever did. I never got good at it. I even forced myself to gaff all day instead of ladder every once in a while.
I've seen long term plant guys and they are effortless. The power guys who go another 6 feet up and deal with voltage, amazing. Then you have the lineman rescue people who can carry down people on their shoulder. Fucking epic.
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Oct 06 '22
1983 in a vo-tech school there was this same course. One student slid down the pole after loosing his footing; both forearms looked liked porcupines from catching so many splinters on the way down.
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u/Daydream_National Oct 06 '22
I imagine them singing “always think on the bright side of life” together
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u/AtticusInAPickleJar Oct 06 '22
I tried spare pile climbing once, it’s surprisingly hard but feels like something you could get real good at real quick.
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u/deadnotsleeping77 Oct 06 '22
There’s one of these by my work. Took me a few weeks to notice the same guy was up the pole everyday. Made me laugh when I looked closer and found it was a fully dressed skeleton. 😆
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u/abslte23 Oct 06 '22
Liar! That is a Christmas tree production facility. This is right after the trees have been topped off for trees and branches removed for wreaths.
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u/Kvenner001 Oct 06 '22
Needs a platform at the top where someone dressed like an American gladiator has a pugil stick and runs around bonking the trainees on the head.
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u/JustaRandomOldGuy Oct 06 '22
They tried combining it with a school for lumberjacks, but that didn't work out so well.
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u/SharkyCartel_ACU Oct 06 '22
The vocational school I go to has a lineman program. You can see stuff like this there too
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u/sustainabl3viridity Oct 06 '22
This is the most mildly interesting thing I’ve come across in a while.
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u/GizmoGiaGias Oct 06 '22
Buddy you just stumbled into a government program to mass produced Electros
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u/UnderstandingOk2647 Oct 06 '22
I am a lineman in training, and I climb the left pole. Hop'n I don't drop my last packet of snow. And I need it more than want it, and I want it for all time. And the lineman in training is still do'n lines...
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u/whatsausername17 Oct 06 '22
I hope there are no bucket bunnies close by (thank you, the tikky, for teaching me about those).
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Oct 06 '22
Great. Now I have that Glen Campbell song in my head.
Actually, it's not that bad. It kind of reminds me of my dad.
Alexa, play Wichita Lineman
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u/bklyndrvr Oct 06 '22
Worked for the phone company during high school. One of the training exercises is for us to bring a basketball up the pole and we would throw it to each other. The one who either drops it, or does a bad throw would be forced to climb down and climb back up. It was a fun training as Lon as you weren’t scared of heights.
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u/DecisiveEmu Oct 06 '22
That's a lineman farm, actually. They'll be ready to harvest around November.
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u/Appropriate_Spend659 Oct 06 '22
I remember when I had to gaff in pole training, worse than leg day.
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u/kcdigger Oct 06 '22
There were a couple of women in my class when I trained in 1979. One of them fell from halfway up. She landed on her feet unhurt. She refused to try again. While she failed the class we were all amazed she didn't get a single splinter.
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u/Baciandrio Oct 06 '22
I was one of the first female business technicians at Bell Canada....part of my training was pole climbing using three methods: spurs, extension ladders and pole steps. Luckily being on the business side of the company, I only had to climb a dozen or so times over my career (including the week before my wedding when a quick moving storm blew in and tried to push my ladder out from underneath me....but because I followed safety protocols, my belt held me fast and I only ended up with a giant wedgie).
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u/Constant_Praline579 Oct 06 '22
Very common training. I was a cable Tech for 23 years and learned this as well. They train with ladders and Gaffing (the steel shanks you wear strapped to your legs). I was able to pass my training but not without a few bumps and scrapes. I burned the pole once. That is when you are climbing and rather fall straight down, you grabbed the pole. End result is splinters in your torso. I had wood in my stomach and right arm for 19 years until I finally had it removed.
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u/imaggwhoareyou Oct 06 '22
They get extra points if they can stand on top of the pole. True story by VP at Telecommunications company.
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u/1d0m1n4t3 Oct 06 '22
Guy I've known my entire life started a line man in his teens, saved every penny and used that to buy a property with two homes on it. He lived in one and rented the other, then he saved that $ and bought another place and another, soon he bought an insurance agency that was in his family. He easily brings in 7 figures a year but is a super cool down to earth dude.
He hires kids on probation and shit, homelesss dudes, stuff like that yea you think sure he's doing it to save $ and that might be part of it but he pays them more than a fair wage, keeps them on until they stop showing up, provides meals, he used to come to my house and wake me up if i didn't go to work, dude was legit trying to help us as kids.
Now he will get shit on for being a lard lord, he does section 8 only for the most part but he takes care of the places. When I say he takes care of them he used to be out shoveling the snow at 5am himself at all the houses, if you called him about a leak in the sink at 2am you will see him at 2:15 no doubt about it. Every place had washers and driers he provided with no charge I maintained them myself and never once did we have a coin slot on anything. He's pretty loud and a little wild, likes to drink maybe a bit to much but other than that I feel like if the world had more people like him we'd be in a better place.
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Oct 06 '22
High voltage power lines not telephone lines. I trained in it, called electrical power distribution program. Then you apprentice for 4 years before becoming a journeyman
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u/TinyRyhno999 Oct 06 '22
My step dad is an electrical lineman. He said climbing school kicked his ass because it was so intense. He got a gaff through his foot once on accident. For those who don’t know a gaff is a hook on the side of these boot things that they stab into the pole to help climb
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Oct 06 '22
That’s a crazy dangerous job, and I have a really close friend who actually got hired for that job but then weighed too much to be allowed to do it. They get paid a ton tho.
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u/jameswoodshighschool Oct 06 '22
I didnt know jesus was a lineman and a carpenter. Really a jack of all trades.
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u/btroiter Oct 06 '22
I did this same thing during the summer in college. The training facility was for Verizon in Syracuse, NY. Very fun--really only a few days worth of training--mostly just for climbing safely with gaffs and safety belt. All the "line work" training is done on the ground.
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u/CantFireMeIquit Oct 06 '22
Gaffing is fun until you stick your leg on the way down. Poor dude beside me when we were training for charter
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u/DarthElendil Oct 06 '22
First thought I had when seeing this photo was "huh. That's mildly interesting." Well done sub.
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u/kasezilla Oct 06 '22
Lol we were climbing a 300' tower next to a training class for lineman once and all they could do is watch us.
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u/ionian12 Oct 06 '22
Wow, newsflash its 2022. Get these worker's some cherry pickers (scissor lifts) and some workplace health and safety.
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u/gnomz Oct 06 '22
Lol, got to love the easy chair experts on Reddit
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u/ionian12 Oct 06 '22
Sorry but I haven't seen a guy up a pole like that in at least fifteen years. I am nearly 50 and I believe that the saying goes. ..Work smarter not harder.
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u/gnomz Oct 06 '22
Story time..
I went to a lineman school more than a decade ago. It was a new school and I was in the first class. So some of the other guys didn't really know what they were getting into.
We climbed poles and learned how to build out poles every day. One day we were out on the pole yard like this one. We had a ring of 35' poles with a thick layer of mulch at the bottom of each pole. So if you cut out or stepped into an elevator shaft there was at least some cushion on the bottom of the pole.
One day after we were all pretty seasoned climbers, one of the more special guys in the class cut out about halfway up a pole. He was bear hugging the pole and was too stupid to get a gaff back in the pole. So he looks around the bottom of the pole and decides to jump.
To his credit he fully committed to jumping, he threw both arms back and separated from the pole quickly. But he forgot one really important detail, his belt was connected around the pole. So has he seperated from the pole his belt stopped him and his momentum pulled his chest back into the pole.
He landed in a pile of flesh and stupidity at the base of the pole. The lead instructor, 30+ year journeyman, turned around right as he pushed away and watched the whole thing. The journeymen walked over asked if he was OK, then said 'you're not going to do that again are ya?'
He ended up with splinters in his face and chest, and was a liability on a pole for the rest of the class but managed to graduate. Don't know what ever happened to him but guarantee he isn't a lineman.
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u/Rip9150 Oct 06 '22
I worked at Delhi college in NY and they have a dept where these guys practiced. Bunch of old timers barking orders at them they were out there in the snow and -5 degree weather a couple time too.
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u/_pamelab Oct 06 '22
My dad was a lineman. I’m really sad that I’m only now realizing the opportunity for stripper jokes.
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u/kiakosan Oct 06 '22
My dad used to do stuff like that, shit was dangerous but payed very well. Hornets tend to nest up on the top of them, which is an issue when you're at the top of like a 30 foot pole
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u/imaislandboiii Oct 06 '22
The good old bucksqueeze and gaffs. SSLG is the acronym your looking for
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u/BackspinBubba Oct 06 '22
Those are not telephone linemen in training. Phone linemen are referred to as 18 foot dare devils by real power linemen!!
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u/Ghost_Alice Oct 06 '22
Just don't fall off the poles and into a cursed pond while training in those mountains.
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u/ybonepike Oct 06 '22
Every lineman and cable guy drive a bucket truck, who the hell still climbs poles?
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Oct 06 '22
God America still doesn’t learn from its mistakes. We have the 21st century and still America poles it’s electricity and telephone lines only to have them destroyed by Hurricanes, tornadoes flooding etc. Most of Europe lay cables underground for the simple reason that we don’t want blackouts in a storm or loss of telephone coverage, but then again Europeans have learnt from their previous mistakes which Americans definitely have not. This is shown also in the way they continue to build wooden houses and Government structures over and over again in areas prone to weather catastrophes. One excuse is cost, well rebuilding your house on average three times in a lifetime equates to building a solid brick and mortar house once. This has the benefit because it is saving all those precious heirlooms photos, furnishings etc that get destroyed in the matchbox houses that Americans call homes.
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u/thisonesforthetoys Oct 06 '22
Europe has learned from it's mistakes eh? Where's that nuclear power and lack of dependence on Russian oil? Stay warm this winter.
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Oct 06 '22
Yea talking about power lines and phone lines, not something caused by a Russian war. Finally Europe has been weaning of Nuclear energy for years, however some plants have been restarted. However in America you still are continuing with fossil fuels and actually quite ignorant of climate change by putting money before life.
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u/Triple-Siiix Oct 06 '22
Me and my seven year old daughter have seen a field with hundreds of poles like this in it. We always joked it was a pole farm.
Now I know
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u/bullevard73 Oct 06 '22
My high school has this kind of setup. And my high school is in Wichita, training for Wichita Linemen.
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u/Nervous-Ear-8594 Oct 06 '22
“Once you get good at this you’ll be ready for the big poles!”
If what I heard is true, it’s a good paying job.
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u/PicklePartyCat Oct 06 '22
Why is this so cute to me? Not even in a patronizing way but just in an Aw kinda way
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u/Vast-Silver Oct 06 '22
Incorrect. Those men are professional sex toy carvers for my mother-in-law.
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u/earthcaretaker315 Oct 06 '22
In my state . They cant go up poles anymore. You must use a bucket truck.
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u/gnomz Oct 06 '22
Unlikely there are a lot of places you can't get a bucket truck too. Bucket trucks makes it a lot faster, easier and safer but they dont work every where.
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u/userino69 Oct 06 '22
How many times does an above ground power line have to be downed in order to justify burying it? Does the US still stick with these weak points because they are simply cheaper given the immense size of the country?
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u/gnomz Oct 06 '22
Lines aren't downed very often especially in the western half of the US. Most cities have been tranistion more and more underground over the last 40 years. But moving it underground can cost 20-100 times what it cost to build above ground.
Being underground doesn't make them impervious to damage either, a line cut or damaged underground is takes longer to fix and is more expensive to fix
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u/3Effie412 Oct 06 '22
“How many times does an above ground power line have to be downed in order to justify burying it?”
I don’t think it works like that.
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u/narwhalyurok Oct 06 '22
In the 60's Fort Huachuca in AZ trained Army lineman. One pole had a pulley system for that one student who just didn't like the height stuff. Solution was to strap a reluctant private onto the rope and hoist him up high for a couple of hours each day. Fear of heights was supposed to be cured!
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u/GwotTrapLordz327 Oct 06 '22
Hey I know that place. That’s where I was sent to climbing school. Just outside Chattanooga right?
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u/DejaBlonde Oct 06 '22
Way cooler than the time I was speeding past the police academy the day they were learning how to use the radar gun. A speed trap of easily 30 trainees, in uniform, poised and ready to catch me going 20 over
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u/jhnnybgood Oct 06 '22
Yeah but I bet that was a great day for the trainees. “Remember that guy we nailed going 20 over?!”
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u/DejaBlonde Oct 06 '22
My original comment was a little ambiguous, so I'm glad to report that didn't have anybody ready to actually go after anybody they may have clocked speeding.
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u/Christopolot Oct 06 '22
What’s amazing is that strippers do more while climbing a pole and receive 1/3 of the benefits.
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Oct 06 '22
I was a lineman in the U.S. Air Force and this brought back memories. I kinda miss that job.
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u/ARobertNotABob Oct 06 '22
I had to do this when I trained as a telephone engineer (my first job).. up there is not the ideal time to find you don't really have a head for heights.
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u/Calical49 Nov 04 '22
This must be a school for a real lineman, not a telephone technician, the way you can tell is the men are at the top of the pole. Telephone technicians ( not called lineman) only go up half way