Whenever I get an Alpha 6 from David I would go for a SLI lamp for it in the future.

It is practically impossible to see from Street View, but I found a couple of Thorn Alpha 5s fitted with SLI lamps in Cheshire. There are two 10m concrete columns with steel brackets on the access road to the Cheshire Lounge, next to where the A556 passes over the M56. The columns and lanterns would have originally lit the A556 before the M56 at this location was built in about 1974 and a new bridge over the motorway built parallel to the alignment of the A556, with the A556 now bypassing these columns. One of the Alpha 5s still has its slimline bowl, whilst the other has lost its bowl, exposing the SLI lamp within for all to see.

Elsewhere along the A556 there are still a few surviving columns of the same type, but I have only known them to be fitted with Eleco GR150s or casual replacement Philips MA50s. The A556 that bypasses the SLI installations still has most of its original mid-1970s PetitJean hockeystick columns, although about 10 years ago the columns were all painted and the lanterns replaced with white ZX3s. The original lanterns were likely to have been Eleco GR150s. I suspect that the original lanterns on the concrete columns with steel brackets were all SLI Alpha 5s, but that in about the late 1970s they were replaced in bulk by SOX GR150s.

Quick question:

what ballast runs a 60w SLI/H lamp?

80W MBF will work fine as its the current rating that is more critical than voltage. You will need to use a fluorescent or the electronic equivalent starter. Wire up as if the SLI lamp is a fluorescent tube.

Old fashioned 65W fluorescent (rather than modern T8 56W) ballasts will also work, this will underrun the tube current wise.

Cheers Phosco.

Have you tried that BC flo tube and ballast yet?

I used an 80W MBF ballast for mine.

As for the 5ft tube, big capacitor was duff - open circuit and leg broke of the small capacitor. Luckily I had modern replacements.

I tried it, but the tube "rippled" badly lightwise. I thought it was duff, so tried it on a 80W MBF ballast and it was fine. Then I realised I had wired up the quickstart wrong, LN goes on the RHS, 2 terminal block not the multiway on the LHS. The wiring circuit is very confusing as the LHS is also marked LN. Corrected wiring and it was fine - and luckily no damage to the ballast.

I did that....

Glad to know it works.

I should add that LampCo completely sold out of the 60w SLI/H tubes and the 140w SLI/H tubes quite a while ago, even after the 60w SLI/H lamp surprisingly came back into stock for a short while (I reckon they had a rummage around after that sudden spike in orders caused by us!). So for 60w and 140w SLI/H tubes, Ebay is your only option for the forseeable future.

The advantage of the LampCo 140w tubes would have been that they are boxed and 'unused', whereas the ones on Ebay are previously used and unboxed. Having said that, if the seller is another collector, then at least the lamp won't have many miles on the clock.

LampCo still have 190 of the 200w SLI/H tubes in stock, if anyone's tempted. I'm pretty sure it had 190 left last time I checked, which was months and months ago!

Yes, an electronic starter switch will work fine and it is what I used. One of the "standard" rating ones will do.

WOW You can still buy SLI/H 200w!  I'm fascinated ! Thanks a lot for the link!