For me, 2014 will be a year to remember when it comes to street lighting. Here are some of the things that shaped 2014.

2014 is the year where LED really started to explode onto the British lighting scene big time. Of course, LED has been about for a few years now, but there has been a considerable shift towards LED this year. Existing PFI schemes have continued installing LED, and some PFIs nearer the end of their bulk replacements have opted for more LED this year than last. A few "invest to save" mass lantern replacement schemes have started and have wiped out a lot of old lighting in certain areas. The biggest news has been the announcement of further "invest to save" mass replacement schemes by local authorities up and down the country. The rate at which local authorities are committing to wholesale LED introduction is unprecedented, and not a month goes by without one or two more authorities announcing they are going LED. Street lighting in the UK is going to change very rapidly now.

2014 has also been the killer year on the South Coast PFI. A year ago it was still quite easy finding relics in Southampton, Hampshire and West Sussex, but as we go into 2015 there is barely anything noteworthy left. Lots of different column styles and lantern types have become extinct in these areas this year.

2014 has been a turbulent year for manufacturers too. Siemens sold off its lighting division Siteco to Osram. Philips announced it was splitting its consumer/healthcare division from its lighting division, sparking rumours that Philips may be thinking of selling off its lighting division. The financial situation at Philips Lighting is not positive, as LED products are growing at the expense of non-LED products, and LED products turn much less of a profit. There were also rumours of General Electric selling off its lighting business, which the company has denied. LED is booming in popularity, but it is causing great headaches for these lamp manufacturers.

So, as we head into 2015, we wonder what changes the new year will bring. I'm sure there will be more notable changes, but I will say with possible famous last words, could 2015 really be as notable as 2014? In terms of street lighting being fascinating for enthusiasts, I feel we may be moving into 2015 with sadness for the great street lighting lost in 2014 and the great street lighting earmarked for culls in 2015.

Time seems to have stood still where I am, there's NO PFI going on anywhere, and the newest installation near to me is a bypass full of Holophane Factor LEDs that have replaced MA50s, and 135watt SOX.
However, this is in the next town from me, in Middlewich, where I am, we still have most of our top entry Beta Fives, (some have even had new bowls fitted to them)!, the only new lantern I have seen here, is a Philips Residium PL that replaced a damaged SOX lantern, its our one and ONLY fluorescent street light I have ever seen in Middlewich in 42 years!

Hi,

Up In Carlisle we are now doing a "change to save" scheme or what ever it's called. The council seems to be focusing on replacing all the high wattage lanterns, these mainly being 135W SOX lanterns and 400/250W SON lanterns. There has been no investment over the years by Carlisle City Council, so now Cumbria County Council are in charge and they have their work cut out.

As well as replacing all the main road lanterns, quite a few side streets are having their concrete columns with Atlas Beta 5s replaced. These are being replaced by Nedal columns and Thorn R2L2 lanterns on top.

As we enter 2015, off the top of my head we still have 1 Revo baby Dalek, 3 GEC Z9491s, 1 ESLA which doesn't work. The GECs and Baby Dalek are still time clock controlled. We also have a vast number of Atlas/Thorn Beta 5s on concrete columns still in service, this number will be going down as the new year kicks off and the replacement scheme gets under way. These Beta 5s are controlled by a mix of time clocks, RTE P42 thermal cells, Zodion SS55s, Horstmann T20s and Type 705 controllers.

Regards,

Andrew.

2014 has certainly been a killer year in Redbridge for many lantern types and the "murderer" in most cases has been the Urbis Furyo, although the similar-looking and rare Urbis Falco has also sunk its teeth into older lanterns. MRL6s are now extinct, the last examples in Ilford Town Centre having been replaced with Furyos in June. The only ones left on Redbridge soil are some TfL-owned examples on the A12 in Newbury Park, although these will soon be retrofitted with Phosco P850 LED lanterns in TfL's mass LED retrofitting scheme. Philips MA30 numbers are now down to just three on a roundabout, the adjacent flyover which featured them having been Furyoed in June. GR100s are now almost extinct, the only road lit by them following the mid-1990s mass replacement of SOX having been Furyoed just a few weeks ago, but one has somehow been missed. Z9554s are now also down to just three. There is one which is right on the edge of the boundary with Waltham Forest and so has probably been missed in a replacement scheme with Urbis Falcos in 2012 due to ownership issues and there are a few on Chigwell Road which are disused and have not been removed having been replaced with Furyos, the latter now having been in nightly service for about 9 months. Alpha 4s are also down to three, all of them being on Woodford Green High Road. The only SOX lantern in Redbridge which still has a notable population is the GR150, although only on one road (Woodford Green High Road) and some of those have been casually replaced with Falcos, Sapphires, Iridiums and in earlier years MA50s and Alpha 4s. I feel they are on borrowed time though due to surrounding roads being Furyoed and Falcoed.

ZXs and SGS203s are now on the decline all the time on main roads as the Furyo has been taking centre stage. There are now only a handful of roads still lit with them. In most cases the columns have been retained but have had their brackets chopped off and the Furyos and their fancy brackets slapped on top, although where the columns have been in poorer condition they have been installed on new columns. Several roads with ZX2s and a smaller amount of roads with ZX3s were Furyoed in 2014. This has been a gradual process since 2008 but it does seem to have sped up over this past year. ZX1s and SGS203s on side streets are still plentiful but are declining. They have been under attack since 2005/6 when Redbridge started trialling metal halide, using mostly Sapphires, but a handful of roads in the Goodmayes area saw their ZX1s retrofitted with LED lanterns about a month or so ago. LED lanterns are now also being used as casual replacements for damaged ZX1s and SGS203s on side streets, so it could well be a sign of things to come. Even the very small number of cul-de-sacs which still have SOX (Eleco GR550s, with some XGS103s and Phosco P228s) have started to see LED lanterns being used as casual replacements and, in one case, en-masse, and a few were already overhauled with Furyos and ZX1s in 2012. P228 numbers are now down to just one, as the only cul-de-sac with them installed saw its two other P228s casually replaced with an XGS103 and a ZX1, but probably at different times as Redbridge was still installing SOX casual replacements in 2013.

So, going into 2015, it appears that nothing is safe. LED lanterns (mostly Urbis Axias, but there is also an extremely ugly LED lantern that looks like two bits of metal smacked together which I can't identify which have been used on some roads) are starting to make an appearance on side streets, but have not yet taken to the main roads. There are only currently about 5 roads which are entirely LED-lit, one with Urbis Pianos installed in 2011 and four others with (I think) Urbis Axias. The number one lantern of choice at the moment on main roads is the Urbis Furyo and all examples installed thus far have been metal halide. But who knows? Redbridge may well turn to LED at some point in the next few years and we could see all Furyos installed over the last 6 years or so being overhauled with LED lanterns. It would be an awful waste if this does happen though, as I imagine the Furyos and Falcos and their brackets have not come cheap, especially as aluminium columns have been used in some cases.

Sorry I've ended up writing an essay about Redbridge's streetlighting, but it has used so many lantern types over the years and over the last few years its streetlighting regime has been so complicated that an essay is the only way I can summarise it!

Herts does not have a council known for their lighting PFIs, and so my home town remains a mix of 1960s steel columns with GEC/Eleco/Philips SOX, and patches of newer stuff ranging from full sections to casual replacements. Still very few LEDs to be found here so far.

Calderdale is also going down the LED route. Thankfully my street retains the familiar golden glow of SOX however it could go considering that only a couple of streets away and there is vast amount of LED instulations sprouting up and we don't even have a PFI.

Haven't seen much else going on locally or when I'm out and about but I do think that in 2015 will be like 2014.

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From streetlighting to radio, dance through the night whilst the streetlights are glowing outside.

2014 saw the almost full eradication of the warm glowing warming glow of SOX in Leeds. As far as I've found, there's a few to be replaced columns but honestly, this can be counted on one hand now. There's still a fair amount of private SOX to be found though.

Also Leeds City Centre saw quite a few of it's 400W SON lanterns replaced with LEDs. This I like and I wish it'd spread and eat up the hideous Iridiums.

It was truly a notable year.

In York, 2014 was the year of the LED... started off in January by four roads in the Holgate area getting trial installations of current lanterns (2x Factor Small (1 road on newish columns, the other fitted to swan necks on S&L's), 1x Urbis Axia, 1 street with a Thorn type I've currently forgotten the name of); then from about May the 35W SOX lanterns on a housing estate by Clifton moor started to disappear in favour of 24w TerraLED lanterns with a smartballast that automatically dims the light to 60% after true midnight without the need for a special photocell.

As time wore on, whole areas are now radically different with the yellow SOX glow replaced by a cool blue LED illumination.

Later in the year a strange coalition was formed, as East Riding of Yorkshire District Council started working for York to continue the LED relighting of areas 3 and 7 in the city as well as some repair jobs, this enabled the local lads to work on a backlog that had amassed due to the council building a cycleway at the University on what I still state is the wrong side of the road - this job meant that about 30 columns had to be moved, taking up both crews for several weeks, but if the cycleway had been put on the other side of the road then no columns would have had to be relocated.

By time winter grabbed hold, ERYDC had completed their side of the LED work - wall brackets had been left alone as they didn't have the keys for the wall boxes... next up was the appearance of the White Cross of Death spreading across the city:- this was lining up work for the new year, and given how the lighting scene had been set for 2014 there was clearly going to be a change in store for main road lighting in 2015.

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