The Alpha 5 is the latest lantern featured by Simon C. Although the catalogue appears to show a deep bowl variant, no mention is made of the SOX version (as used in Hampshire) only the SLI version.

More info on the Alpha 7 and one I spotted in real life.

Alpha 9 catalogue entry.

I want to know how all these Thorn lanterns always have installation pics of the lantern mounted on a Thorn column! I thought they were extremely rare! I mean, I'm assuming they're Thorn columns as they always have a Thorn-type model number eg in the Alpha 9 pic the column model number is QLC M0887?

Well probably a marketing ploy, Thorn lantern, Thorn column. GEC also offered their own columns. Thorn did produce their own 5, 6 and 8m aluminium columns although the one you mentioned looks very much like a Stewarts & Lloyd one. I wonder if they offered columns from other manufacturers?

Well, they had some sort of an agreement with Abacus.

Latest from Simon C is the Alpha 10 and Beta 1.

There are still a few Alpha 10s around Nottingham that Claire knows about, and a few of us have them in our collections.   I didn't realise it was also a 55W lantern, that mounted at 5/6m or so must have looked weird. Claire knows of such an installation near a school, unfortunately now removed.

Simon's catalogue listing for the Alpha 10 is interesting in several other points, firstly the publicity shot seems to show the Alpha 10s replacing some older concrete columns and secondly the columns the Alpha 10 are on, look to have very similar brackets to the columns that have just been replaced on the Havant bypass - I have posted images elsewhere of those.

They are 8m versions of the columns used on the Havant Bypass. The ones pictured with the Alpha 10s were on the M4, most likely on one of the Heston Services slip roads. The columns in the background on the central reservation were Alpha 6s.

Perhaps the original lanterns on the Havant by-pass were Alpha 10s before being replaced by Eleco GR200s?

Re: Thorn columns, it is likely the lantern manufacturer had some sort of agreement with the column manufacturer to include their name. For instance some British Steel (now Corus) columns over in Gibraltar have "THORN" stamped on the door instead of the BS logo.

Also the brand new CU columns on the Eden shopping centre multi-storey car park in High Wycombe all have "PHILIPS" stamped on the doors instead of "CU" also unsurprisingly the columns are fitted with Iridiums.

No, the GR200s were original, and anyway, Alpha 10s would have been too low wattage at 12m mounting height at the relatively large spacings used.