Unusual places to work...

[littlespark]

Fed up with the DIY thread from earlier.

I'd like to know where was the most unusual, out of the ordinary place you have worked? Open to non electricians, so give us your job as well so we can see how unusual it is.

I'll open with electrician job in an RAF base in Leuchars Fife (now not RAF). Used to working in domestic houses, offices, farms, factories and most of the base was generally the usual stuff, albeit in concrete buildings with 3ft wide bombproof walls.
One day we were asked to change a (explosive proof) light fitting in a building known as the Missile Section. Now each section had its own health and safety brief before any civilian was permitted to enter. This particular H&S was going along as normal until they got to the fire risk.
There was only one word written on that page .... "RUN!"
The guy giving the brief just smiled;- "cos that's what we will be doing. See if you can catch us up"

Incidently, that section also didn't allow works vans on site that contained a tracking system. Apparently, the signals of the tracker confused the control room into thinking it was an enemy radar, and could arm a missile..

One time I was attending the annual air show behind the scenes. I saw a rare sight of all 14 Red Arrows in formation when there's normally only 10.
OK, They were in a parked formation on the runway, but it sounds impressive.

 

[KEV 1 N]

I remember working at HMP Durham 12/13 years ago on a large cell block refurbishment.
Every day It took 45mins to get on site, so you didn’t get started till about 9am, packed up around 3.15 to get out, took about 30mins unless the inmates kicked off, then the guards would disappear and you would have to wait. We got paid every day and extra 1.5 @ time and half for the inconvenience.
No open tool boxes allowed they had to have a lockable lid, all tools to be counted in and out each day, all broken hacksaw blades, drill bits etc had to put in a special container.
Everything was fixed with rawl bolts, light fittings, trunking, sockets, the lot, (no red plugs allowed!)
I also remember the job ran over the period when red/black cables were being phased out, but the job was started in red/black and they didn’t want to mix the colours, so cable had to made to order in red and black!
A very interesting and memorable job!

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

has to be time a few years back working in brothel / massage parlour on the gloucester road in bristol.
we were on 3rd floor fitting out downlights, showers, cctv panic alarms etc...
on 2nd floor the girls were attending to blokes making all the right noises.. was told some funny stories. the girls looked absolutely stunning and in some cases quite educated. if anybody was being abused it was the daft blokes paying for the services!
regardless of morality and peoples views on there work, it was an eye opener, the girls were a good bunch mainly eastern bloc, earned good money, £180 per hour, of which they paid 60 to the parlour... the police turned a blind eye to what went on as it was off the street, the girls had health checks and security was good. its still there when i drive past i have a laugh at what we saw..

 

[Bob Geldoff1234]

In the 80's i worked in the monkey house in Blackpool Zoo.The cages for the gorilla's had glass at the front where the public viewed them and a cell door at the back where the keeper passed the food through.Beyond the cell door was a narrow corridor linking the cages and that was where i was working.Every so often there was an almighty bang from the cell door where the gorilla was shoulder charging the door.This went on all day that we were there.At the end of the day we told the keeper that we wouldn't be coming the following day due to other work but would be back the day after that.When we arrived 2 days later the keeper took us to one side and told us that it was a good job we hadn't come the previous day as the gorilla had managed to smash the cell door down and had gotten into the corridor where i would have been working.I dread to think what would have happened to me if i had come face to face with a 160kg gorilla!

 

[PEG]

Don't know where to start...done Faslane and Barrow,with armed shadowing...a MUFC players house,where i had to attempt CPR on a fitting bulldog...the basement storage floors,under the Lebanese embassy in Paris,where i could have been still...or the travellers site,where in the depth of a frozen winter,i wobbled about,on an 8'x4' sheet of ply,placed on the top of a dozen rock-hard,frozen dog turds...

Me pal's grandad nailed it,when i was only 14,when he told me "Believe nothing you hear...and only half of what you see..."

 

[Pete999]

Can't tell you

 

[Squid]

I dread to think what would have happened to me if i had come face to face with a 160kg gorilla!

An on Mumsnet there is a similar post but ends with "I married him"

 

[Squid]

Can't tell you, but my name is Pete, Pete Bond........

;o))))

 

[telectrix]

not as exciting, but down the salt mine. 500ft. below ground, installing tray and SWA off a diesel scissor lift. every place the lift had to have it's hydraulic feed extended ( floor uneven) and every screwed rod was a different length due to the undulating roof. bosch 24V sds drills lasted 3 months in the corrosive environment before being scrapped. still had the tray checked with spirit levels every end of shift.

 

[Percyprod]

Had a job to go to to change a meter. Security gates with intercom. Got let in by caretaker, place was a big mansion with outbuildings. Showed into meter room, and saw four cylinders about 6 feet high and 2 in diameter. I asked him what they were for, and he said "for the fire system for the cars". He then showed me two floors of classic and vintage cars,all in immaculate condition. He said they were worth about four million!
The other one for now concerns a job I was on in the late sixties when I was an apprentice electrician. We were doing some wiring on a farm, and had to run a cable through a pen containing a large but placid bull. We asked the farmer if he could move it, he said it was ok, it wouldn't hurt us, but we said if it nudged the ladder it could cause a problem! He hooked a lead role onto it's nose ring, and let it to another pen, no problem. 2 weeks later in the local paper it said the bull had hired the farmer to death. Not nice. I've a few more I will post later.

 

[KEV 1 N]

Another one I’ve just remembered....doing an EICR at a university science building. We had to test what they called “the body lab”. Inside laid out on a table was a real dead body covered with a white sheet!
I told the apprentice to keep an eye on it, in case the bugger rose up like something off Frankenstein!
There was also a side room off this lab with a band saw.....and numerous arms and legs in plastic bags!

 

[AJshep]

Worked in a few different places.
Most unsettleling was a prison for the criminally insane, we were working in the womans ward and this particular woman was constantly barking and howling at us.
But other than that just the usual stuff a regular customer of mine is a Sex toy and fetish clothing factory.
Once did a bit of work in a former Chelsea / England players house, who own a big white house.
Back in the 2002 I was on TV on Carol Vorderman Better homes (what a joke that was).

 

[Squid]

Another one I’ve just remembered....doing an EICR at a university science building. We had to test what they called “the body lab”. Inside laid out on a table was a real dead body covered with a white sheet!
I told the apprentice to keep an eye on it, in case the bugger rose up like something off Frankenstein!
There was also a side room off this lab with a band saw.....and numerous arms and legs in plastic bags!

As an apprentice I laid on a slab and covered myself in a sheet in the morgue that was being refurbished, when the electrician walked in I started to moan and twitch, funny he never forgave me that joke..........

 

[Squid]

Not unusual but iconic in a way, worked at the V&A as an apprentice (hopefully my PYRO is still in and working), also worked at the British Library when it was just a hole in the ground, when working for Virgin Records used to visit Abbey Road Studios, interesting place.

Bashing out conduit with extra long threads at the Shell fuel depot at Heathrow many moons ago for fire regs in flammable areas.

Worked for LUL for a while some of the depots, stations and offices are interesting and you can get lost in the corridors of the tube station under Heathrow Airport.

 

[littlespark]

Speaking of Heathrow. I was on T5 on part of the baggage handling system. Kinda explains the problems they had when it first opened. - It was my spanner in the works!
Our part of the site was 6 floors underground.
I was one of 2 Scottish sparks brought down because they couldn't get enough local ones. They were all deserting the job to work on the Olympic village for an extra 25p an hour.
Getting paid an approved spark rate when all we were doing was cutting tray and trunking. A monkey could have done that. Only one other spark was permitted to connect any cables, and that was extra low voltage following a diagram.
I was happy with the pay, happy with the hotel they put us up in. Happy with the perks. Travelling expenses every 2 weeks to go home.
I still have a lot of the PPE we were given at the time. All marked for T5. Sentimental value.

 

[Percyprod]

In the days of the area biards I had a job to move a meter for the program "Challenge Aneka" I think it was called, with Aneka Rice. Still remember certain parts, mainly her bottom. Mmmmmm

 

[Pete999]

In the days of the area biards I had a job to move a meter for the program "Challenge Aneka" I think it was called, with Aneka Rice. Still remember certain parts, mainly her bottom. Mmmmmm

Perv

 

[littlespark]

My mother's cousin was an electrician down in Surrey back in the 80's/90's. One day he was working on a big country mansion house.
Turns out it belonged to the parents of the siblings that made up the pop group Five Star.

 

[Squid]

Speaking of Heathrow. I was on T5 on part of the baggage handling system. Kinda explains the problems they had when it first opened. - It was my spanner in the works!
Our part of the site was 6 floors underground.
I was one of 2 Scottish sparks brought down because they couldn't get enough local ones. They were all deserting the job to work on the Olympic village for an extra 25p an hour.
Getting paid an approved spark rate when all we were doing was cutting tray and trunking. A monkey could have done that. Only one other spark was permitted to connect any cables, and that was extra low voltage following a diagram.
I was happy with the pay, happy with the hotel they put us up in. Happy with the perks. Travelling expenses every 2 weeks to go home.
I still have a lot of the PPE we were given at the time. All marked for T5. Sentimental value.

I think I worked on the T2 refurb and got absolutely wasted on the "topping" out party and worked on the T4 project dragging in armoureds with a 5 Tonne lorry think it was the Tommy Ronan lot we worked with.

 

[Leesparkykent]

A few weeks into my apprenticeship we had to go and install CCTV in a brass house....

 

[Adj]

Once worked at Carmarthen mental asylum, before it and the rest of them were all closed. Sent the mate outside to count the windows to gauge the cable runs because of all the locked doors inside. Whilst he was standing on the lawn counting with his fingers 21..22..23.... these 2 big male nurses came up behind him and asked what he was doing, he said "I'm counting windows....." and they grabbed him. Had to go down to the hospital "reception" area to vouch for him before they would give him back to me.