vintage electrical service equipment, living a new life!

Since I've been on a little burst of hooking up some of my traffic signal collection and adding it to the patio lately (some have been shown) it occurred to me that it was a perfect opportunity to ALSO actually put some of my old electrical equipment collection back to use. Seen here are the two core pieces of the assortment of cords and boxes now populating my carport wall -- besides these the other major piece at the moment is a dedicated flasher cabinet for the carport fourway beacon signal which deserves its own showing in the near future. ;-) :-)

On the left is an old circuit breaker panelbox holding eight breakers that now function simply as switches. It (and a second like it, plus some other such stuff) was rescued from a curbside pile in front of a house around the block in my neighborhood, when they apparently upgraded. Some of the breakers in it might have come with it, I can't say that for certain since I also have a boxful (accidental collection?) of random old breakers (by various mfr's) and only picked out the cleanest eight that'd fit. ;-) Pic 4 shows the wiring-in-progress as I'm continuing to add things into it, with several switches remaining unused. The box itself (with wonderful rusty patina on its cover) can't be any older than 1954 (since that's when my subdivision was built) but I'd suspect is more 1970's or so, it was made by ITE CIRCUIT BREAKER COMPANY.

On the right is a vintage analog electric meter and socket box, now only showing how much juice I'm burning up with my outdoor light-up toys. ;-) ;-) :-) (well, plus a little chest freezer that's also in the carport, but...) What makes both of these items more fun (to me, anyway) is that both pieces are marked with the "A.P. & L." name -- that meaning 'Arkansas Power & Light' -- the name our local electric company used until just a few years after I first moved here when they became "Entergy" instead. In pic 3 the AP&L logo is stamped on the lower right corner of the meter box cover, and the meter itself features their name on its tags inside plus the remains of the yellow sticker on its front warning folks not to tamper with it.

The meter box was made by MILBANK Mfg. Co. and is new-old-stock that'd never been used, picked up at a flea market years ago with the original cardboard blank still in the opening in front of the socket inside. In fact, I have now officially punched out its very first holes to mount it and get my cord out of it. (it came with the hub on the top pre-installed) The meter itself was rescued even longer ago from a then landlord, who undoubtedly knew somebody that worked at AP&L (or something...) and thus was able to get his hands on a couple 'as removed from service' meters, which I in turn appropriated from a likely premature death-by-junkpile in one of his sheds... ;-)

OH, and for the record, the disclaimer part I guess -- ALL THIS STUFF is now installed purely for my own entertainment, and more importantly safely and perfectly legally connected to one single 12ga. power cord plugged into a dedicated 20A circuit (labeled for 'outside lights', what else?) from my *real* circuit breaker box and *real* power meter. (which is now digital of course, and entirely boring to look at...nothing moves in there any more...)