On Mon, 22 Jan 2018 09:07:10 +0000, Tim Lamb wrote:

The 11kV overhead here has a breaker at least 1 mile from the nearest
substation ...

That's within the range of "close". B-)

... although there is a spur feeding this end of the village and
a transformer feeding two isolated houses. I don't know how it operates
but the maintenance crew always complain about poor telephone signals.

An auto-recloser is a box up a pole withe the three phases looping
through it. An air switch is an open frame work with the three phases
passing through it (or not if it's left normally open...) this has a
bar running down the pole to a locked lever handle to open/close it.

The crews complain of poor mobile signals as they have to get
clearance from the DNOs control rrom before they start flicking
switches on/off. Only the control room has a complete picture of
which switches are open or closed or which sections have faults or
which sections are under maintenance.

--
Cheers
Dave.