Anchor pylon - Definition and Overview

At an anchor pylon the conductor cables of an overhead line of electricity mains are anchored. For technical reasons conductor cables for overhead lines cannot be manufactured longer than about 5 kilometers. One therefore must at suitable pylons which anchor pylons, a transition of a line section to another to create. One recognizes anchor pylons easily by the fact that with them the insulators are aligned by the tension of the line more or less parallel to the earth's surface (see for this: Picture under support pylon). Since the line at a anchor pylon is to be continued, the line is likewise removed into the other direction at insulators, which lie parallel to the earth's surface. Between the two line sections the electrical connection is made over a short conductor cable strained between both line ends, the current loop. Anchor pylons are used as a rule, where overhead lines changes of direction full-lead (hitting a corner pylon). Also the last pylon before the introduction of an overhead line to a switchgear or with the transition to a ground cable is nearly always a anchor pylon. Also branch pylons are likewise usually anchor pylons. Since anchor pylons must take up the traction powers in the conductor cables, they are usually more stably built than a supporting pylon. One finds anchor pylons therefore - in particular when old lines, like the German north south line - at both sides of traversing a railway line, a river or a valley. A special form of the anchor pylon is the final assembly branch.