The Heybridge Railway, 1889 to 1913

[simond]

While tearing down my work room for a house move recently I’ve had to dismantle the power supply strip that I’ve used for about 20 years (see photo). It’s a system which was sold by Wickes in the early 2000s and consists of interconnecting trunking which all ran off a common 13A plug using sections with 4 x 13A sockets each plus various length connectors. It all clipped into a moulded wall trough making a very neat design for a workbench where there were a lot of devices with a small load, with usually only one being used at any one time. Sadly they withdrew it from sale shortly after I bought mine and I’ve never seen anything else like it for the home consumer (I’m aware there are desk-mounted systems for IT equipment but they are very expensive, probably over-engineered for what we need and don’t have the wall mount).

I'm sure someone will tell me why it's a really bad idea, but it's served me well for many years.




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possibly too easy to overload?

Though you would hope the 13A fused supply was sufficient to protect it.

 

[Chris Veitch]

possibly too easy to overload?

Though you would hope the 13A fused supply was sufficient to protect it.

I guess that's the obvious issue but I've never had any problems with it - the heaviest load is takes is a Cowells 90ME and I can't actually think of a time when I've had more than one appliance running off it simultaneously. That's not including lighting but since that's about 15w of LEDs I doubt that's a factor either. The plug (it comes with a terminator section with its own plug) isn't an ordinary 13A and contains some sort of electronics which I presume is surge protection - I'm pretty ignorant of such things so not sure what difference this would make.

 

[RichardG]

possibly too easy to overload?

I can see shrouded pins, but if the built-in sockets at the ends are not shuttered then perhaps the unit failed to meet a revision of the wiring regulations.

 

[Chris Veitch]

I can see shrouded pins, but if the built-in sockets at the ends are not shuttered then perhaps the unit failed to meet a revision of the wiring regulations.

I did wonder if their withdrawal was something to do with regulation. I suspect the Part P regs came in around then (yes, I know they relate to fixed domestic wiring which this isn't) so possibly something similar affected "appliances" like this.

 

[Osgood]

Only reason I can think of is use of multiple 3-pin connections for every section.
Dirt build-up (e.g. oxidation) creates overheating risk - a bit like stacking 3-way adapters into sockets which is frowned upon but I'm not sure how dealt with in the Regs.
But it looks a neat system.

 

[RichardG]

One good thing to come out of this discussion is, I have reduced the number of 13A plugs on the bench from ten to six.

There are long, decent quality socket strips out there to buy (8-way example) but they invariably have only one switch. If loads are to remain on 24/7, like radio-controlled lighting and the base for the DECT phone, such strips don't really work. And the cables for eight 13A plugs so close together create a mess.

So if I can get by with six sockets on the bench, things look less cluttered and I will be happy.