thin blue line 2

One of the many cable laying machines about the highways locally laying the fibre optic cable. This particular one I'm told is called a "plough" because it has a vibrating mole plough attachment on the back that feeds the cable down underground. This method is the fastest... Fast that is, relative to a racing snail. I am 1.34 kms from the end of our road (I know this because of our emergency number) and it took them three days to get from my front gate to the end. Shades of the Bullet train.

There are thrusting machines for pushing beneath obstacles: driveways culverts and such and "Chain Trenchers" for doing bits where the ground is too hard for the "Plough"

The thrusters bore through the ground horizontally and a plastic pipe is inserted in the resulting hole. When the "Plough" arrives at the obstacle the crew has to unroll the entire cable reel, push the end through the pipe then drive the "plough" to the other end of the pipe and wind all the cable back on the reel again... being very careful not to break it or kink it of course.

Makes watching grass grow seem spine tinglingly exciting and is possibly why the Guard Cones had a very bored look. They only look attentive right now because I pointed the camera at them. Sometimes I wonder, if their resemblence to the Daleks is just coincidence