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PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:20 am 
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Welcome aboard!

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:02 pm 
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Welcome to Ukastle Paspie. I hope you enjoy your time here.

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PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:05 pm 
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Location: Mid-Wales
I've been a collector since a number of years, and have bought lanterns from other collectors, mainly StreetlightingUK group members. I have a "thing" for Mercury. I've rescued a few SOX lamps from the local council, as well as a wonderful AC Ford bracket. I replaced a horrid 500w PIR halogen on the front of the house with something a bit more civilised. In recent years we've started to see an increase in vandalism on the road I border, so having something on all night is worth it as a deterrent, together with CCTV and sticker.

The history of lighting at the front of the house started off with a GEC Z8896 running 70w MH. Due to concerns over light leakage, I swapped it for a Thorn Riga, again running 70w MH. I found that it was rather harsh, and swapped it for a Thorn Civic 1 running 57w PL-L when one popped up on eBay. I bought it from Jeremy in Derby. However, this only lasted 18 months!! I think it could be the ballast but I've so far not done detailed tests. Everything else worked, so off it had to come, and was replaced by a GEC Z8691 running 80w mercury that I'd just restored.

I've put photos on Flickr of the most recent replacement job:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/welsh_snap ... 50/detail/

I also bought a Revo Prefect, cleaned it up, gave it a splash of paint, and stored it. A wooden leccy pole less than 100 yards away (and within eyesight of the back of the house) got replaced as it was rotten. The leccy board make a pig's ear of removing and replacing the ancient AC Ford bracket and AC Ford SOX lamp that they cracked the curved part of the bracket that bolts onto the pole. So the council had to replace it with a 70w SON Thorn Riga before the old one fell onto someone's head. I rescued the whole lot, and Brian Wilde removed the horizontal bar from the curved bracket for me. I went back a few months ago and he attached it to a straight wall-mount bracket for me. It all got cleaned up, painted black and gold, and I attached the Revo Prefect to it, with a 80w 3BC mercury bulb. That's now wired up on the back of the house. Photos of it on Flickr on the above link.

I've masked the Z8691 with aluminium foil round the inside of the bowl, with only the bottom oval of the bowl clear. I've also given it a coating of UV-block satin varnish. By and large, the optics seem to match the Thorn Civic 1.

Also at the back of the house on the patio I have a bottom-mounted Z5678 with again 80w merc. It's lovely sitting under this doing a spot of reading on a summer's evening when it's roasting hot inside due to the wonderful loft insulation.

Richard


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 12:53 am 
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I like the mercury glow myself too... and from the pictures, your house looks to be a late 60's / early 70's build, and so the mercury would be in keeping with the age of the building.
I am a fan of supported pole/wall brackets, so your front installation complete with Z8691 is quite pleasing to the eye...

I have seen some of your other pictures in the past before now, as I commented on some photos of Hawes.

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:34 am 
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Location: Mid-Wales
mazeteam wrote:
I like the mercury glow myself too... and from the pictures, your house looks to be a late 60's / early 70's build, and so the mercury would be in keeping with the age of the building.
I am a fan of supported pole/wall brackets, so your front installation complete with Z8691 is quite pleasing to the eye...

I have seen some of your other pictures in the past before now, as I commented on some photos of Hawes.


Yes, your name rings a bell. The house was built mid-60s, but mercury was very rarely used by Montgomeryshire County Council/District Council, nor Powys County Council. It was a sea of SOX, until relatively recently when SON has started to appear. There has been the odd isolated bit of mercury in far-flung villages, and on the A483 Vyrnwy bridge at Llanymynech, but that has long since gone. (Thorn Alpha 3)

What I've tried to recreate now at the front of the house is something vaguely typical of North Yorkshire, without having to travel up there to enjoy the glow of it, or its general "look".


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 1:47 am 
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Well, as a York bloke I really do like the look created - especially with the Z8691, as that really is a good rural Yorkshire look.

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PostPosted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 3:06 pm 
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Hi everyone,

I've been reading this forum for nearly 2 years now and I always intended to join, but I've been prompted into action now as replacement are rapidly taking place in my home town of Driffield in East Yorkshire.

I think my interest started as a very young boy being driven around by my Dad. Looking up out of the nearside window I became fascinated by the different columns, lanterns, and colours I saw by day and night and my interest grew from there.

I think its the fact that as the world changes around them, these installations remain the same for decades, and that's why its an odd feeling when you see them being pulled out and replaced - especially when they've been as long as you've been around.

Obviously I'm interested in the older lanterns and columns, but I've come to realise that even relatively recent SOX is on borrowed time, and soon our roads will look very different at night.

I detest the virus that is style-less overly tall post-top SON as I'm sure many in our community do, and that's why I think its great that forums such as this collect and photograph classic installations before there literally is nothing left to be interested in.
I'll be posting updates in the Yorkshire section for news from the East Riding.

Take care everyone,

Silverray88


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PostPosted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 8:00 pm 
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Welcome to Ukastle, SilverRay88.

The last time I went through Driffield the town still had that 'Humberside' feel to it. I do believe that Filey still retains the old mercury (minty green) lighting what with that being a stones throw away from the East Riding boundary.

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PostPosted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 11:24 pm 
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Excellent, welcome to Ukastle! You're only a few miles down the road from me as well...
I presume your area still has a fair number of the boxy cut-off philips SOX lanterns (XGS 201's) that got installed in the Humberside era...
(just to clarify proximity, when you head west and get to the top of Grrowby Hill you can actually see my house, depending on the direction you're looking!)

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PostPosted: Fri Sep 21, 2012 7:10 pm 
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Hi everyone,

I've just joined UKASTLE after spending a few days reading through some of the threads.  Having been fascinated in lighting and roads in general since I was a kid, it's great to be able to put model names and numbers to some of the lanterns I've known by shape only for years.  

I was inspired to do a bit of research and join the forum after a chance encounter with a friendly lighting crew led to me getting hold of a Phosco P107 lantern.  I prefer older lanterns which I guess is just because I grew up surrounded by them, especially classic post top designs, so my pet hate is when they get replaced by a bracket extension and a standard side entry light.  :D   Of course when I say post top, I don't mean the style of post top SilverRay88 has mentioned but the shorter residential variety, preferably on a nice concrete column.

By the way thanks to the people who have sent me a PM in response to my post on the lanterns thread, I don't think I can reply directly as I haven't posted enough yet, but if you do read this and can PM me a private email I will try and get back to you.


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