I was out in my town tonight with my two boys getting water ice and I started glancing around and I saw a house nearby with a very unusual looking overhead service drop of a type I’ve never seen before.

I think the typical type for overhead service drops which we have a lot of around here is called “Triplex”? Two fat black insulated cables and a bare one all twisted around each other. Then we still have the really ancient 3 separate wires from the pole to the house but they are pretty rare now.

This one was two fat gray insulated cables, and a bare cable, but stacked vertically together and held together with what looked like wire ties?

Is this a new type? I’ve never seen anything like that before. I tried to look it up online to provide a picture, but I just couldn’t find one, everything seems to be the twisted triplex type.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PASig, June 21, 2023 06:52 PM

If you had a picture, it would be helpful. I have never seen square conductor for service as you say. But some service conductor have raised ridges on the jacket for phase identification purposes. Maybe the conductor looked square due to raised spine on the conductor? Square conductor seems that it would be problematic to terminate with either a service wedge or a makeup. Now if it was stacked and wrapped with ties, maybe it is a case of power theft? I have seen some strange power theft situations!
Lineman

I'm a power company guy too and that sounds strange . I'd like to see a pic myself .

I'll go take a picture of it sometime.

I still cannot find anything online that shows what I saw, could this have been some sort of homemade service drop?

It literally looked like 2 gray insulated 2 or 4 gauge wires along with a bare aluminum one stacked up and zip-tied.

It sounds home made. Zip tie is a clue. They tend to not last long out side.

quote:

Originally posted by sig operator:
It sounds home made. Zip tie is a clue. They tend to not last long out side.

The black ones are UV resistant and last a while longer but it's still not standard construction methods .

Isn't the fat grey what is use for underground service cable?

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
Isn't the fat grey what is use for underground service cable?

Around here UG service is black .

Yep- all secondary service I have installed is black. either overhead or underground. But I was taught that because of The Beautification Act of America and Lady Bird Johnson, that transformers are generally gray, some older overhead services are gray covered PVC, some still remaining poles are called gray poles and appear gray and most, not all, of the related apparatus is gray colored (surge arrestors, potheads, some insulators). Ms. Johnson wanted the power system to blend with the sky when one looked up to see the pole mounted apparatus.?
Lineman

That gray color is called ANSI 70 Gray . I think it predates her Beautification Act of 1965 which I think was mostly about highway beautification . I could be wrong though .

Got some pics for those who asked:

Well that's different . Nothing like that around here that I can recollect .

It looks like they made home made triplex cable by wrapping part of or a separate ground wire around it to bundle it.

It looks like a 1/0 Triplex service. And it looks like a factory-made item. The lash on the conductor is too uniform to be made at the yard. I have installed this type of lashed service, but the conductors are normally twisted. It is older due to the color of the conductors and it is served to main conductors with what we call squeeze-on connectors. Anyway, it is different. Thanks for posting, seeing this stuff is certainly interesting. I thought I had seen it all!
Lineman

That building's brick work looks to be old.
It looks very similar to a building in my town from about 1900-1910.

quote:

Originally posted by TRIO:
That building's brick work looks to be old.
It looks very similar to a building in my town from about 1900-1910.

Allentown area? This would be 30 or so minutes south of you.