Sat with my son on Saturday, and in one of the quieter moments of the game he asked "Dad, how do they change the bulbs on those floodlight towers"?

I gave him the standard answer, "They're L.E.D. bulbs so they last for ages so don't need changing"..

But it got me thinking, how do they? Does the whole pylon retract like at some cricket grounds, does some bloke shimmy all the way up the tower, or do they use some super duper high rise platform to get up there..

I feel like I've cheated my Son and I need the truth!!!!

they use a platform to get up there

Heres a video about Chester FC changing bulbs on floodlights

https://youtu.be/fNogAqNXdes

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:13 am

they use a platform to get up there

Cheers CT, Wouldn't bloody get me up there for sure!!!

Andreshotboots wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:20 am

Cheers CT, Wouldn't bloody get me up there for sure!!!

I won't even climb a ladder

If you had added Port Vale in your answer, you would have been right!
I still have memories of how dark it was in that league Cup defeat!

Andreshotboots wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:20 am

Cheers CT, Wouldn't bloody get me up there for sure!!!

I have no problem with heights (flying, high buildings, cliffs etc etc etc) I love it ... but on a platform or ladders that high ... no ******* way

Over here, i mean its only 5 stories, but still..... our window cleaners have a wooden seat on a rope that they swing around on

Bosscat wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:29 am

I have no problem with heights (flying, high buildings, cliffs etc etc etc) I love it ... but on a platform or ladders that high ... no ******* way

I've no concern with heights as long as my feet are on what I consider a stable platform. I remember going to my mum's once and she asked me if I'd change a light bulb for her; she'd got these steps out for me. No chance, I stood on a chair.

Put up some bird boxes last year working off a ladder ... said never again ... mind you we have had 3 lots of baby sparrows brought up in them and that made it worth it so looking forward to same next year

My dad used to have a ladder with rungs missing. He was always asking wee Ian to mount the ladder and bring up stuff, while he was on the roof.

That marked me for life!

My ladder is aluminium and no rungs missing!

ŽižkovClaret wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:31 am

Over here, i mean its only 5 stories, but still..... our window cleaners have a wooden seat on a rope that they swing around on

Our old window cleaner (we called him "porthole Pete"for obvious reasons) worked off ladders (not 5 storeys though ) new one uses an extended pole window washer ... he does our whole street in less than an hour.

This Claret does them

When I was with my first wife, in the early 80s I was once at the top of a ladder outside the house painting the upstairs window frames. I must have been taking my time because a couple of times she came outside to see if I had finished. When she finally said “have you not finished yet.” I came down the ladder and handed her the paint brush. She got about 6ft up the ladder and froze, unable to move. I went and made a cup of tea, then helped her down about 5 minutes later, probably the longest 5 minutes of her life. We didn’t last long after that.

Bosscat wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:42 am

Our old window cleaner (we called him "porthole Pete"for obvious reasons) worked off ladders (not 5 storeys though ) new one uses an extended pole window washer ... he does our whole street in less than an hour.

Bloody progress! They'll be using drones before long

I heard Fred Dibnah climbs up....

There's no good reason for anyone to be afraid of heights, be it 2', 20', 200' or even 2000' they won't do you any harm at all; it's the ground that you need to be wary of, a right nasty b****** is the ground, once that gets involved it really can hurt.

I've been up on a cherry picker on two occasions.

The first was to dismantle some rugby goals. The height I was at was about three metres but because both the cherry picker box and the rugby post were moving it becomes a bit disorientating.

The second time was on the roof of the three storey flats I live in to look at the gutters, about ten metres high. This felt better because although the cherry picker box moved about the building didn't. It was a great view. However the operator, also in the box (you need training and a certificate to work them), perhaps just to test me, decided to have a look at the ridge (very top) of the roof. Now we were in free air with nothing to focus on. That was, er, fun!

I've also been up some right rickety ladders in my time which I shouldn't really have done. I also came off some step ladders whilst cutting a hedge with petrol hedge trimmers. The interesting thing was I felt the steps going so calmly turned off the hedge trimmers, threw them to the ground away from where I was going to fall, and somehow landed without any injury except my pride. Indeed the first thing I did was to look around to see if anyone had seen me fall! I then put the ladder back up and started cutting again. Super cool I was! Or just plain lucky.

firm i used to work for often did jobs on building sites and we were expected to ascend the tower cranes.
sometimes leaving the inner ladder the crane driver used and climbing onto the outer steelwork. In cold, rainy weather it was the worst feeling. we often used scaffolding too in factories, or double extension ladders. ironically one of my mates who worked elsewhere and never had to work outside , fell off a small stepladder doing a ceiling job in a house and fractured his skull.

Don't believe me?
This is the sort of cherry picker that our local football club uses to check its floodlights.

Hey CT, you could do this when you tidy up your garden:


Remember you need a friend to hold the base of the ladder!

Remember Jim Thomson going on Bob Lord roof to retrieve some balls, he was on an old fashioned wooden step ladder which was held together with rope balanced on scaffold (the scaffold was about 8 foot short) and the scaffold was half on the pitch with the other half balanced on 2 bricks on the running track, when he got down the speed at which he covered half the pitch to the dressing room toilets was a damp site quicker than he achieved as a centre half

This feller has no problems with ladders

https://youtu.be/Ao5NsWSXZjI

Bosscat wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 3:52 pm

This feller has no problems with ladders

https://youtu.be/Ao5NsWSXZjI

It's been a while since I climbed a ladder stocking.....do they still do em?

tim_noone wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 4:34 pm

It's been a while since I climbed a ladder stocking.....do they still do em?

Not in your size Tom-Bib ... or do they

I've got the ends of the rafters and the gable end to treat in the next few weeks, not looking forward to it at all. I might watch John Noakes climbing Nelson's Column beforehand to get me in the mood

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tGZ-h70IK9s&t=0s

Nobody fancy following in the footsteps of these geezers then:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXY11LVKyG0

4:20 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 4:54 pm

I've got the ends of the rafters and the gable end to treat in the next few weeks, not looking forward to it at all. I might watch John Noakes climbing Nelson's Column beforehand to get me in the mood

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tGZ-h70IK9s&t=0s

Omfg!! No Ladder training back then.

After I left school I started as an apprentice plumber for the old Rawtenstall council. Up a ladder one day changing guttering (plumbers job then) with the ladder planted on the grass sloping away from the house (steeply). Nobody at the foot of the ladder and nothing securing it. Couldn’t free the guttering because of ice (yes it was freezing as well). Plumber down below was doing something else but when I told him the problem he said hang on and came up the ladder underneath me. Two of us at the top of an unsecured ladder sat on a slope in icy conditions struggling with frozen guttering.
Yes, there was a time when health and safety didn’t exist.

houseboy wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:53 pm

Yes, there was a time when health and safety didn’t exist.

Or common sense.

Bullabill wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:03 am

Or common sense.

That might have been in short supply but hindsight is a great thing. Oddly I have worked in health and safety and much of it is actually b*ll*cks.

This is today at Potters Bar Town FC.

The potters bar type can be lowered to the ground slowly using a drill in conjunction with a specialist device with a big worm thread in it.
We had one to get a floodlight up and down each year as it would otherwise have been in the middle of the cricket pitch each summer.
It's quite a long operation, needing an electrician, a guy with a jcb to move it afterwards etc etc.

I've got an IPAF license and would gladly go up there, it's quite a buzz and I should think that it would a brilliant view. I'll post some photos if they ask me!

You don't have to, they're perennials.

Jel wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:46 pm

I've got an IPAF license and would gladly go up there, it's quite a buzz and I should think that it would a brilliant view. I'll post some photos if they ask me!

If I'm considered 'they' then post away please!

timshorts wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 20, 2021 8:39 pm

The potters bar type can be lowered to the ground slowly using a drill in conjunction with a specialist device with a big worm thread in it.
We had one to get a floodlight up and down each year as it would otherwise have been in the middle of the cricket pitch each summer.
It's quite a long operation, needing an electrician, a guy with a jcb to move it afterwards etc etc.

I believe they have got a hinged base but the fencing would have to be removed first so it's probably more practical to employ the cherry picker vehicle.

Hipper wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 21, 2021 9:59 am

If I'm considered 'they' then post away please!

No. You are an us!