Wigan

I hadn't planned to be away this week but earlier this afternoon a client decided that they'd like me to be onsite for a launch tomorrow morning. I couldn't see any way of saying no, so I replied to the email with a cheery "of course" and rearranged my plans for the week.

I suppose that more than anything else I was cross that I'd miss a night with the kids but, ultimately, once the decision was made there was nothing to do but to roll with it with as much good grace as I could muster.

Thus, this evening, I found myself on Wigan North Western railway station, which I've never been to before, except when passing through. Not that it offered much in the way of novelty.

The Minx had kindly dropped me off and, as I had twenty minutes to spare, I spent some time on the 'phone to Dan and Abi before mooching about looking for something to photograph. In the end I settled on these electricity cables. I'm surprised that we've yet to find a better way of moving electricity about than using high voltage cables. (High voltage means far less energy is lost due to heat.)

Because the electricity is, effectively, under pressure from the voltage, it could jump short distances to another conducting body - even an unwilling one, like a human - so they have to be high off the ground and, where the cables need support, like from a pylon, for example, then obviously the electricity mustn't be conducted away through them. Thus the porcelain* plates that you can see in the picture, insulating the supporting cables. The electricity takes a small detour through the wires passing a few inches below the plates and supporting lines.

I guess the voltage isn't as high in these wires as it is in the cables that run between pylons - I couldn't hear any humming - but I was still glad they were safely out of the way, suspended in their Heath Robinson cat's cradle.

*At least I assume they still make them from porcelain. I guess it might be a different, possibly cheaper and better, insulator.