After covering the line trade for more than 20 years for T&D World, one of my guests for the Line Life Podcast put it perfectly: “line work is a big industry, but it’s a small world.” Over the years, I’ve had the honor of meeting lineworkers and their families from around the globe at the International Lineman’s Rodeo Week and shared stories about storm response, grid modernization projects and new tools and technologies.

Here at T&D World, we cover the line trade year-round with our weekly Line Life Podcast, bi-monthly Lineman Life enewsletter and field-focused Electric Utility Operations in both our print magazine and on our website. One of my favorite projects of the year, however, is writing in-depth feature stories about life on the line for the annual Lineworker Supplement.

Over the years, I’ve profiled women in line work, troublemen, pre-apprentices, inventors in the trade, military lineworkers and volunteers for overseas electrification projects. I’ve also covered topics such as safeguarding mental health for first responders, responding to severe storms and the history of the International Lineman’s Rodeo.

For the 2026 Lineworker Supplement, we are continuing our tradition of celebrating the men and women who work on the line.

What’s Inside

For each Lineworker Supplement, I try to focus on storm restoration, safety and training and the culture of line work. For this supplement, this is what we have in store:

1.   Lineworkers Around the World. All around the world, lineworkers are working on the line to power their communities. They often go by different job titles, but they have one common mission: to power their communities, build and maintain infrastructure and work safely so they come home to their families every night. I learned that no matter where you’re from and where you live, the line trade is one big community. RaeLynn Hawco, a power line technician in Canada, said the best part of the trade is the people.

“The friendships, teamwork and sense of accomplishment you get from completing a project or helping restore power after an outage make all the hard work worth it,” she said. “I genuinely love the work and the people in this industry.”

For this feature, I had the honor of not only connecting with Hawco, but also father-and-son lineworkers in England and a member of the first journeyman team at the International Lineman’s Rodeo from New Zealand. They shared stories of their training programs and focus on safety and how they are building new infrastructure to meet the growing demand for power in their service territories.

2.   Training in the Trade: Every year, I try to focus one of my articles on training the future generation of lineworkers. Last year, I highlighted pre-apprentices, but this year, I shifted the spotlight over to the instructors in the line trade. After a career of working in the field, they are now inspiring others to pursue their dream of working on the line. They talk about making their transition from the field to the training yard and how they are helping their students to sharpen their skills, scale poles and be prepared for the line life.

3.   Line Wives. Back in 1994, we featured an article, written by another author, about the wives of linemen for the Lineworker Supplement. As a married mom of five, I thought it was time to revisit this topic by sharing how today’s women are balancing everything on the home front while their spouses are away on storm duty for days, weeks or months at a time.  To find support and camaraderie, they are connecting with other line wives on social media groups and finding ways to support their spouses during storm restoration.

4.  Storm Responders. I love writing about storms and sharing the lessons learned from rebuilding and recovery. This year, I’m focusing on best practices, tools and technologies that line crews can use to expedite restoration and safeguard their field workforce. Over the years, utilities and contractors have discovered ways to get the lights on quickly for their customers while supporting their line crews as they are away from their families.

Get Involved

I enjoy sharing stories of those who work on the line. If you want to be in the spotlight, swing by the T&D World booth at the International Lineman’s Expo, where you can participate in a future recording for the Line Life Podcast. Tune in at linelife.podbean.com to listen to stories about lineworkers on the go. 

We air interview-style episodes on the first and third Fridays of each month and audio stories narrated from the print magazine for our ICYMI series. Once a month, we also drop a new musical playlist specially designed for the line trade in our “Line Life Listens” series. Learn more by subscribing to our Lineman Life enewsletter and visiting tdworld.com/electric-utility-operations.

Thank you to all the lineworkers and their loved ones who participated in this year’s Lineworker Supplement. I look forward to seeing all of you during the 2026 International Lineman’s Rodeo Week.

Make sure you stop by our booth to get free temporary tattoos for line wives and kids and T-shirts celebrating America’s 250^th anniversary for lineworkers. Travel safely and get ready to Rodeo!