230 kV cable buyer in Niagara Falls

Station material is not line material

Station bus is aluminum tube, schedule 40 and heavier, in diameters sized for the current of the bay. Its value depends on alloy, wall thickness, straightness and whether the ends are square and clean. A straight length with known alloy and good ends is worth far more than its weight as scrap; a bent length with welded stubs is closer to scrap, however large it is.

Jumpers are the opposite: short, flexible lengths of conductor, usually ACSR or AAAC of a moderate size, cut to loop between two points. They are often the most immediately reusable thing in the yard because they are already the right conductor and already cut to a working length, but they are also the first thing thrown into a scrap bin.

Then the fittings, which carry much of the value and almost none of the weight. Clamp-type connectors, terminal pads, spacers, suspension assemblies and corona rings are bought by crews maintaining the same class of station. A box of connectors sorted by type is worth considerably more than the same box tipped into a mixed metal skip.

The same yard produces material that is not bus at all. Control cable, station service cable, battery cable and the short grounding jumpers that tie equipment down all leave with a station upgrade, and they are priced on copper and condition rather than on alloy. Collecting them in one place instead of sweeping them into the scrap bin is worth more than their weight suggests.

• Aluminum tube bus: alloy, diameter, wall thickness, straightness and end condition
• Jumper lengths: conductor type and size, cut length and condition
• Connectors, clamps, terminal pads and corona rings, sorted by type
• Grounding conductor and grid material from the station, priced on metal
• Overhead conductor, kept separate because it is priced by the reel

Loading at the switchyard gate

Station material has an awkward shape rather than a heavy one. Tube bus comes in lengths that overhang a standard trailer, jumper coils are light but bulky, and a pallet of connectors weighs almost nothing while taking up a full slot. The loading plan is therefore about length and restraint rather than about weight limits.

Access around the falls is reasonable by upstate standards. The I-190 runs through the city, Route 31 and Route 62 connect the river corridor, and rail serves the industrial ground along the gorge. Yards attached to stations are usually fenced with a gate wide enough for a flatbed, but the internal roads are laid out for maintenance trucks rather than for a lowboy with a forty-foot overhang.

Everything inside the fence is the owner's territory. Removal happens on their schedule, with the circuit de-energised and released, and lifting is done by their rigging or by contractors working to their rules. A buyer's job starts when the material is on the ground outside the energised area, not before.

One more distinction is worth making on an enquiry. Material that has stood in a yard for years has usually been picked over, and the lengths still there are the ones nobody wanted. Material released at the end of a bay replacement is often complete, still tagged and still banded. Ask which one it is, because the second is worth more and looks much like the first in a photograph.