Slightly off topic but to do with discontinued lanterns, I think that the Little Chef lantern and the 2ft versions are possibly made by Whitecroft and it seems to me that the 'Suger cube' lantern is made by Abacus (or what was Abacus).

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

what makes you think the LC lanterns are by Whitecroft?



Also, I have known for a while the Sugar Cube lanterns are by Abacus, as the local installation to me (former ASDA) are on Abacus columns...

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I think that the LC Lanterns are made by Whitecroft as its something that they would try to see if they could produce an unusual post topped lantern.

I could be wrong though.

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

They're Thorn Gamma Nines.

All the best,
Simon

Excelent, so their not Gamma 7's but 9's.    The main thing is, is that i have found some.

I would imagine some holiday parks such as an independant caravan park might use Gamma 7's depending on who owns the site, I know that Sussex Beach Holiday Village (as I've stayed there once) has/had Phosco P170's.

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

Why Whitecroft though? Why Whitecroft and not any other manufacturer? Did Whitecroft even exist in the 1980s when Little Chef fluorescents were installed?

Well i was guessing Whitecroft as they manufactured the York Wall lanterns, AFAIK they could be made by Ring Lighting.

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

The thing is, at the moment nobody really has a clue who makes these lanterns, and so for somebody to say "I think they are made by xxxx" makes us wonder what reasons there are for that statement.
Myself and Steve wondered if they were an Atlas/Thorn lantern, as the spine has Atlas branded ballasts along it... but without seeing a newer version with a product label on, or a box with a label on that contains one of these lanterns, we don't know for sure who makes/made them.

The Gamma 9's are probably rarer than the 7's - as those Wakefield ones are the first complete examples I've seen. Tim Lucket has one pictured on his site, but it has no outer bowl and the spine is bent.

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Ah sorry about that, so if it has Atlas branded ballasts fitted as standard could it be an Atlas/Thorn product and not a Whitecroft as I have previously thought.

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

Nah, I don't really have an issue against you thinking about whitecroft making them. The simple fact is that nobody here knows for sure who makes them - the only way we'll ever know (besides what I said in my previous post) is if a former manager of Little Chef joins up and says who they order the lights from.

Anything that we think about as to who makes them is pure speculation... which is why the listing for this lantern on my website (when it's online) is just "LC2" - Little Chef version 2.

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