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Personal Museum/collections?

MHRestorations
Does anyone else on this site have their own 'personal collection' of antiquated electrical equipment that's in too good a condition to throw away, or may be unique?


I was caused to wonder this by the 'reuse' thread. We're starting a full rewire soon on a property which has a beautiful combined service head, main switch and fuseboard, all in one unit. I can't remember who made it, I want to say Callenders (later BICC). it's light cream coloured (almost the GPO 'light straw' if anyone's familiar) and with gilded lettering stating the purpose of each 'section' (Electricity supply, main switch and 'fuses').


I fully intend to keep at least the main switch and fusebox as functional (but clearly not actually used) items, and the service head if it turns out it can't be separated from the main switch easily, or if the DNO decide. I suspect it has rewireable fuses in, and possibly even a neutral fuse, although the meter dates to the 80s so that would likely be linked out.


In any case I'll be taking detailed photos of the installation as it is before we disturb it.


My colleague regards this as timewasting and would love to destroy the old gear in a blaze of RCBOs and 18th ed. compliant boards, but I bribe him with lunch to allow me to save such relics. I feel it's part of history?


Am I alone in this respect, and if not, how out of hand can it get?


  • 0
    A possible prop for a life sized electrician's version of 'cluedo' I'd have thought.

    And in the envelope go the cards for...

    " mapj1 was murdered by his wife, in the workshop, with the offcut of Paper Insulated Lead Clad"

    perhaps as opposed to stabbed by the screwdriver, strangled with the length of twin flex or poisoned  by  Bakers fluid.
  • 0

    John Peckham:

    BOD


    The 3 and a 1/2 has not had an outing yet ...




    Neither has my 4 and a 1/4. ?

  • 0
    "four and a quarter" presumably for street mains with central control of street lighting via the extra and much smaller core.
  • 0

    OMS:

    For me, I tend to the William Morris school of thought - if it has neither value nor beauty, then chuck it out.




    The trouble is guessing what will have "value" in 10, 20, 30 years time - not perhaps in pounds and pence, but there's stuff I've chucked away (despite being a massive hoarder with several sheds to prove it) which I've really regretted later when younger engineers have shown an interest.

    How about "If it is neither in a museum nor there are loads of them on eBay then chuck it out" ?



    Cheers,

    Andy


  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    Andy Millar:




    OMS:

    For me, I tend to the William Morris school of thought - if it has neither value nor beauty, then chuck it out.




    The trouble is guessing what will have "value" in 10, 20, 30 years time - not perhaps in pounds and pence, but there's stuff I've chucked away (despite being a massive hoarder with several sheds to prove it) which I've really regretted later when younger engineers have shown an interest.

    How about "If it is neither in a museum nor there are loads of them on eBay then chuck it out" ?



    Cheers,

    Andy



     



    Sure - for me it's a personal thing - I'm fed up with having a garden full of sheds with useful stuff in them that I have no further use for (or interest in)

     
    If I can't quickly find a home for it, then out it goes. I don't care if that's a charity, another individual, or a skip - but I'm no longer willing to retain "stuff" that might be useful "some day".


    Regards


    OMS

  • 0

    OMS:



    .... I'm no longer willing to retain "stuff" that might be useful "some day".



    I no longer retain stuff that might be useful some day either, but it is not me that throws it out........

    Alasdair

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    I have a smallish collection of the strange looking Wylex plugs and sockets, and the Dorman Smith plugs and sockets where the live pin is a fuse that screws into the plug body.
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    perspicacious:


    Apart from the ongoing obsession with getting every Edition of the Regs, there's all the various "colours" and the paper amendments to collect. 





    But they look so pretty all lined up in our bookcases in the office! ? 

    bbd30e153c19020e3dfee9a4c5153698-huge-regs.jpg

    c1355d53a58bb511b5ec872a14b7b408-huge-img_9727.jpg

  • 0
    Lisa, I think there are a few of us who would consider that collection to be both small and quite modern ? *. There is certainly plenty of equipment and wiring still in service that predates the oldest book on your shelf, and the older books are then sometimes useful to see what the original installer might have been thinking, though quite often the really peculiar head scratchy stuff did not fit very well with the standards of the day either.



    * (For example, I have recently - 2015 ish - re-organised under some domestic pressure and now only have about 10m of shelving, 5 off 6 foot shelves rammed full, of electrical and electronic data books in the living room, and the rest less commonly used stuff is in deeper storage like the loft and no, I have no intention of posting a photo..)
  • 0

    mapj1:

    Lisa, I think there are a few of us who would consider that collection to be both small and quite modern ? 




     

    Ohhh Mike.... ?


    That was only a small part of the bookcase.... ?

    02d8b5b791dc7b93516627a52820861b-huge-img_9728.jpg


    And this is just the bookcase that sits in the Wiring Regs team area....  ?

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