big poles, big transformers

our electricity infrastructure has become such a pervasive part of our urban landscape that underground comic artist robert crumb needed a whole notebook of photographs to remind him to put them in his drawings. electrical lines overhead, the poles that hold them up, the transformers that make the energy usable and the electrical boxes both on the street and on the buildings, among other things, just kind of blend into the background for most of us. 

from the blue line, you can see that for some people, thinking about all this stuff is a full-time job.  the above picture is of a yard where the big poles reside before they're put in use for all of us to hang our yard sale and lost dog signs from.  this particular morning, i got to see the big crane moving some of the poles.  below are some really big transformers, similar to the ones that get mounted on the poles, but probably for a sub-station or industrial building.

and here are some people on a completely different section of the blue line training to be linemen.  i wonder if any of them know that glen campbell song.

i suppose it's only fitting that all this stuff is viewable from an electrified train.  it is all of these people and this stuff that keeps us moving on our journeys and, like our junk, it's better to see it where you use it so you can understand how things fit together.