Yesterday's fabulous lantern meet involved a long trip for a few of us, so with that in mind, I though it would be a great opportunity to bring a camera and see what relics I could find on the way.
Although it's now accepted that old-school main-road fluorescents have died off, there has always been speculation as to whether some authorities are still running old-school side-road fluorescents. I haven't yet been able to track down the side-road fluorescents that apparently still exist in Chelmsford (according to my contact) or even determine whether they are of the old type or the new type. But it turns out I didn't need to go as far away as Chelmsford to find some old-school side-road fluorescents. The village of Great Cornard, just nineteen miles away from Colchester, still runs some side-road fluorescents, and now we have pictures!
On a fantastic summer's morning, I tracked down
this lantern running two 2ft 40w fluorescent tubes.
A close-up of the same lantern, which has been painted 'Suffolk Green'. The ends of the two fluorescent tubes can be seen inside the bowl.
And just around the corner from the above lantern was
this identical lantern, raising the possibility that the village may be hiding even more of these relics!
The village of Great Cornard has stubbornly stuck to white light over the years, including this road of Thorn Beta Nines! In fact many of Great Cornard's 'distributor'-style roads are lit by Thorn Beta Nines mounted on telegraph pole brackets, meaning the village retains dozens and dozens of them. They seem to be everywhere you turn! This is a great discovery for me after my failure to save
Clacton's two examples from destruction. I believe Great Cornard is run by a Parish Council, hence the survival of such old fluorescent lanterns and the numerous Beta Nines.
On passing through Great Whelnetham in Suffolk, I was so distracted by
this pole bracket-mounted top-entry Phosco P107 that I missed
these rare lanterns on the other side of the road!Up into Leicestershire, and the Leicester Forest East Services offered a convenient stopping place to get a picture of these GEC Z8534/6 turtles that light the M1. With the demise of the
GEC flat-glass turtles on the M25, it sounds like this section of the M1, and a small section of the M6 near Wigan (although I haven't been up that way for a while) are the last remaining stretches of motorway to be lit by turtles?
Once in Nottingham, a tip-off from Claire about the existence of this magnificent white-painted Siemens Kuwait for 5ft 80w fluorescent tubes made a short detour on the way back to Nick's inevitable! Having ruled the road in their heyday, it is a great shame that surviving installations of these hulks can be counted on one hand...and with fingers to spare!
It was getting late in the day when I arrived, but the bright sunlight was still shining on this Siemens Kuwait lantern and also dramatising the clouds behind. The harsh lighting seemed to enhance the presence of this magnificent beast!
The intact Kuwait is one of a pair of Kuwait lanterns that once used to light the grounds of the
Mason's Arms pub in Hucknall.So did anyone else spot anything unusual that they hadn't spotted before on their long trips yesterday?