Hi Dave,
Glad to hear that worked for you in Seattle but where I reside (Memphis area), the local utility company is actually city owned and they cut cost as much as possible, which means they don't discard anything to the recylcer. They have their own transformer repair shop, so that kind of cuts out the hobbiest from being able toget their hands on anything usuable. It was once explained to me that any transformer that they discarded would pretty much be beyond all reasonable chance of repair. Would imagine some utilities may be "gun shy" about selling HV gear to individuals, too, due to liability.