Unfinished replacement schemes, forgotton & abandoned lanterns

Urbis Saturn Land · **Posted:** Sun Jun 27, 2010 12:49 am

I don't know whats cast into the one at Wooldale but i think it may be a long gone Kirkleeian firm.

Stelmer · **Posted:** Sun Jun 27, 2010 8:29 pm

Whilst we're on the subject of sewer vents, this one near me has been in the same place for a long time. Probably over 100 years.

Here it is from 1926:
http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL

mazeteam · **Posted:** Sun Jun 27, 2010 11:14 pm

It's odd really how other street furniture gets upgraded to new standars, but these remain the same. You'd expect in these days of Passive Safety and what not, that these would get replaced with fibreglass versions.

Rojojnr · **Posted:** Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:30 pm

This post could go into three of the forums on here, but I thought I would post it on this one as they're old survivors scattered among newer columns:

On the otherwise SGS203-lit Sheen Lane in Richmond, SW London, are these two unsleeved CU concretes with what looks like a Golden Ray of some description installed on them. There are also another two installations with the same lantern but shorter brackets further along the road behind the camera which are being replaced by SGS203s. The closest match I've found to the lanterns is an HW745, but the lantern looks slightly too wide and has a too strict V-shaped bowl for them to be that. The lanterns in the SV also don't appear to have pronounced bowl clips as the HW745 does. I presume these were left due to their proximity to the level crossing and thus it would've been too dangerous for a cherry picker to park up and remove them, or perhaps they have been left so that they light the crossing without the semi-cut-off SON SGS203s causing light spill onto the railway and confusing train drivers. I think, therefore, the negligence of these installations is intentional and has been done for at least one good reason. Nevertheless, it's great to see them still surviving, and in top notch condition too!

Compare those installations with the entry for the Eleco HW745 on Claire's website and tell me what you think:

http://www.midlandcountiesstreetlighting.co.uk/Photos5.html

Indust · **Posted:** Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:43 pm

It looks like they were about to be replaced however at the time the GSV car went around. Look here. The column and bracket joint is in quite poor condition on the shorter bracket example as you can see it's cracked to quite far down and started spalling, and has been taped up. The other example has one of those temp yellow fences around it. But yes, it's impressive, and quite odd that two relics and 1950s columns (CU Highway) have survived this long on a road where all the other lighting is modern.

There was a column like the long bracketed example, but with a longer bracket (the column was the same but had decoration on the base) on a very steep hill another town near me - all the other lighting being on newer columns. I think it was left because the column was on an isolated bit of footpath away from the road, and it's a very steep hill with traffic normally queuing around that bend, and the bracket brought the Turtle over to light the corner junction it reigned over. Sadly, all Turtles on that part got replaced with that being the last example, I got there a day too late to photograph it!

And it got replaced with 2 Sapphires!

mazeteam · **Posted:** Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:47 pm

I think you also win the award for longest link on these forums! :lol:

But I do think also that were in the process of being replaced, just that no new columns were alongside at the time of pics being taken.

Indust · **Posted:** Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:51 pm

mazeteam wrote:

I think you also win the award for longest link on these forums! :lol:

But I do think also that were in the process of being replaced, just that no new columns were alongside at the time of pics being taken.

Look again at the link I posted in my message.

There's a column near the shorter bracket example. No bracket and/or lantern though.

Rojojnr · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:55 am

Indust:

Quote:

It looks like they were about to be replaced however at the time the GSV car went around. Look here. The column and bracket joint is in quite poor condition on the shorter bracket example as you can see it's cracked to quite far down and started spalling, and has been taped up. The other example has one of those temp yellow fences around it. But yes, it's impressive, and quite odd that two relics and 1950s columns (CU Highway) have survived this long on a road where all the other lighting is modern.

There was a column like the long bracketed example, but with a longer bracket (the column was the same but had decoration on the base) on a very steep hill another town near me - all the other lighting being on newer columns. I think it was left because the column was on an isolated bit of footpath away from the road, and it's a very steep hill with traffic normally queuing around that bend, and the bracket brought the Turtle over to light the corner junction it reigned over. Sadly, all Turtles on that part got replaced with that being the last example, I got there a day too late to photograph it! And it got replaced with 2 Sapphires!

Oh yeah, thanks for pointing that out! I didn't see that new column there tucked away behind the old one. Come to mention it though, the new column is in a strange position, right at that junction. It looks as if the bracket and lantern could be installed to either light Sheen Lane or the beginning of the service road. Why the council couldn't install the replacement light adjacent to the concrete one I don't know - perhaps my theory that the new lantern might cause light spill onto the railway stands.

That's sad to hear about the GEC Turtle in your area - God obviously wasn't smiling on you that day! :lol:

But why two Sapphires? Are they a lower wattage than the Turtle or something and so needed to be installed closer together to light the road effectively?

Indust · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:33 pm

Rojojnr wrote:

That's sad to hear about the GEC Turtle in your area - God obviously wasn't smiling on you that day! :lol:

But why two Sapphires? Are they a lower wattage than the Turtle or something and so needed to be installed closer together to light the road effectively?

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 4,,1,-2.92

The concrete column was where the Sapphire 1 is, and the bracket brought the lantern to the green shrubbery. Clearly the council couldn't bear to see the old supply going unused and installed a Sapphire 1 there, as well as a Sapphire 2 (nothing was there before) a few yards in front. If you look carefully, you can see a new Sapphire on telegraph pole, and another Sapphire between the two Sapphires I was originally talking about! And if you think that's crazy, there is a Turtle just behind the camera!

Rojojnr · **Posted:** Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:45 pm

Quote:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 4,,1,-2.92

The concrete column was where the Sapphire 1 is, and the bracket brought the lantern to the green shrubbery. Clearly the council couldn't bear to see the old supply going unused and installed a Sapphire 1 there, as well as a Sapphire 2 (nothing was there before) a few yards in front. If you look carefully, you can see a new Sapphire on telegraph pole, and another Sapphire between the two Sapphires I was originally talking about! And if you think that's crazy, there is a Turtle just behind the camera!

Yeah, that's very insane indeed! Not only has that junction been well overlit, the second Turtle you mention behind the camera which went unreplaced from before was left AGAIN after the one on the concrete column was replaced! I think the theory that councils only listen to what computers tell them and not their own observations certainly stands! That's very unlike a council to see old power supplies be re-used too - with the throwaway attitude of most councils these days, I would've thought they would've removed the entire power supply and installed a new one afresh where that Sapphire 2 is. I suppose they thought it would save money, but exactly how has it done that for them to install TWO new columns and lanterns in place of one? Why didn't they just install a Sapphire 2 where the old column was with a long bracket? Clearly your council can't seem to afford long brackets and so install two columns to carry it off! Mental is the word! :roll:

Here's a couple of bits of insanity from my local area:

In mid-2008, Horns Road saw most of its white deep bowled ZX3s (except for one short section of ZX3s at the end of the road) replaced with retrofitted Furyos and new brackets in Redbridge's trialling of MH. Whilst the vast majority of the ZX3s were covered in one replacement regime, these four ZX3s (and two more by the shops further down on some newer columns with billboards on them, installed in 2006) were missed! So for a time the stretch of road in front of the retail park was lit half by SON and half by MH. Then, about a year later, three of the ZX3s by the retail park (the ones on the left) were retrofitted with Furyos, but the one in the foreground was missed yet again and, 2 years since, still remains so! Do you think the council didn't order enough/couldn't afford to order enough Furyos and brackets to cover the entire stretch of road, or do you think they are yet again relying too much on what their computers tell them and not using their eyes?

In 2005, Cranbrook Road saw all its ZX3s that were by the shops replaced with DW Windsor Stratums running MH. All of them, that is, except this one next to the roundabout! It remained there until very recently, when it was removed as part of TfL's work on signalising and regenerating Gants Hill Roundabout. Isn't that just ludicrous how it took TfL to remove the column as part of their works rather than Redbridge council coming to remove it themselves and replacing with it another Stratum over the 5 years of the column being left? Another question is: would TfL have had to get permission from the council to remove the column, or would they have just been allowed to remove it willy-nilly so it didn't get in the way of their works?

Unfinished replacement schemes, forgotton & abandoned lanterns

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