I'm having trouble trying to find bloody links myself now, but I suppose that's how it always is :-}
OK, try Reyrolle, LMT, SWS C4X for a variety of hits :-}
J&P were known to suffer from rust to the welded seams on the top plate of the breakers - after the fatality they were all taken out of service and had a maintenance done on them, and from what I remember a fair number were taken out of service as they were out of design spec.
The metalwork where the rust was removed was not painted to help prevent recurrence, and it is only by the now 12 yr maintenance regime that any problems are going to come to light.
Other switchgear has seem permali linkages delaminating, voltage transformers with faulty sprung connectors, etc etc.
Unfortunately I don't have access to the spec sheets any more, but given the length of time the equipment has been in operation versus its' original expected lifespan - but you don't buy a classic car unless you're going to poke your head under the bonnet a little more frequently than with a modern engine...
That's probably a very strong possibility, but the cost of replacing all switchgear over, say, 30 years old, is likely to be phenomenal.
Privatisation has lead to the budgets for this type of ongoing work to be cut (you don't have to just pick on switchgear as an example - when was the last time you saw cleated wiring being replaced in any quantity, why do we still have iron clad cutouts still on the system etc.)
The industry has long term ongoing network maintenance costs that you can't really avoid for any length of time, but that's exactly what has been happening. Delaying what should have been planned / programmed works has got us into a position where all the remedial work is getting close to unmanageable in scale and cost.
I'm drunk anyway - ignore the rant :-}