It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:44 pm

All times are UTC






Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 9 posts ] 


Author Message
 Post subject: Favourite lanterns
PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:30 pm 
Offline
Member
Random avatar

Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2009 4:49 pm
Posts: 814
Images: 108
No order:

Atlas Alpha 3: This will probably always remain the greatest for me, just the sheer design and beauty of it as a whole, and a fact that it was such an iconic lantern.

Thorn Beta 9: Such an interesting and quirky side road lantern, maybe my most favourite side road lantern ever. I prefer the geared version, as that adds to its character. How much I'd pay to have one of these!

Eleco HW918: I like these for similar reasons to the Beta 9, and again, I prefer the geared version, (which is something like HW1001010100010101010101010101000101111101010101)

Thorn Alpha 8 (MKII): A proper lantern, industrial looking, hard and a monster!

Thorn Beta 79: Not to everyone's taste but it was the first of its type, attractive, and a generally great slighty more modern lantern, despite its faults.

Thorn Alpha 1: Need I say anything?

Thorn Gamma 8: My favourite 'saucer' type lanterns. Would love one of these, but at the rate PFIs are going, I can't see it happening!

GEC Z5590: A charming little top entry mercury lantern, that looks at home on almost every installation.

WRTL Air Trace: Haven't seen any of these installed, but the design is one of my personal favourites for a lantern from this era.

Thorn Alpha 2000: Clonky and different.

GEC Z8526/38 and Z8420 etc: Although I don't like them as much as the Alpha 3, GEC did introduce this corker of a lantern. I prefer the flat glass versions that swing from the shoe, but the bowled versions that don't.

Eleco HW846: Just love it. It looks brilliant on the bracket it sits on, in a picture from sotonsteve's fotopic.

Atlas Beta 3: So rare. Does anyone even know if there are any more out there now? Also think the bowl and the canopy look very good together. I'm glad to have seen one.

Thorn Beta 5: I bet all the past collectors hated this lantern for replacing their mercury stock, but at this point, how could you not like it?

I may add some more as and when I think of them!

_________________
"I used to rule the world... Now I sweep the streets I used to own."
Remembering GEC.


Top
 Profile  Personal album 
 
 Post subject: Re: Favourite lanterns
PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:57 pm 
Offline
Site Administration
User avatar

Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:38 pm
Posts: 3402
Images: 27
Location: Salisbury
The geared version of the Eleco HW918 is the HW11600.  ;)


Top
 Profile  Personal album 
 
 Post subject: Re: Favourite lanterns
PostPosted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 9:53 pm 
Offline
Member
User avatar

Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:27 pm
Posts: 1814
Images: 200
Well, here are some of mine, in no particular order:

GEC "Brick": There were many variants, small body, medium body, large body, remote gear, gear-in-shoe, low profile bowl, flat acrylic bowl, 55W through to 180W SOX, SON with gear-in-body, catenary. It was a clean and simple design that looked as modern in the late 1980s as it did when it came out in the mid to late 1960s.

Philips MA50/60/90: Like the GEC "Brick", many variants, a lantern for all types of main road lighting. Very modern when it came out. The Iridium of its time. Not the most interesting design of lantern ever produced, but still a classic.

Phosco P125: Not very common, but the 55W SOX lantern of choice in Southampton for a while. In my mind, the most sleek 55W SOX lantern ever produced.

Thorn Alpha 1: Revolutionary and space aged when it came out in the mid 1950s. Streamlined style, lamp sealed within the optical compartment, ahead of its time.

GEC ZD815: Not very common, but a Southampton classic. In my opinion the best looking "saucer" style post top, with brilliant proportions. Looks great day and night.

Eleco HW918: A Southampton classic, a great looking side road mercury lantern. They may have originally been offered with glass bowls, but a shiny, new, clear acrylic bowl looks great.

GEC "Turtle": Many variants, my favourites were the Z8526 and Z8536. I prefer the Z8526 to the rival Alpha 3, and I have many memories of passing under Z8526s and Z8536s on my way to relatives' houses when I was young.


Top
 Profile  Personal album 
 
 Post subject: Re: Favourite lanterns
PostPosted: Sun May 19, 2013 6:49 pm 
Offline
Random avatar

Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 6:16 pm
Posts: 1
What would you say is the best street light in the UK and why according to these factors:

aesthetics
quality of light

Thank you for answering.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Favourite lanterns
PostPosted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 10:05 am 
Offline
Member
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 3:53 pm
Posts: 16
I know that my all time favourite lantern is the Phosco P567. I just love the design of it and I don't think it could be made any better.

Ten other favourites (in no order):
- Urbis Axia
- WRTL Stela
- WRTL Libra
- WRTL Arc
- Urbis Opalo
- Philips MI 26
- REVO Sol-d'or (Only problem is it's hard to spell!)
- Philips Iridium2
- G.E.C. Z5670


Last edited by danwho9 on Mon Jan 19, 2015 8:36 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Favourite lanterns
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 12:13 am 
Offline
Member
Random avatar

Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 7:43 pm
Posts: 148
Images: 37
The all time winner for me would probably be a gear in shoe MA60. The mother of all lanterns, it's a workhorse that looks good.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Favourite lanterns
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 8:28 am 
Offline
Member
User avatar

Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:27 pm
Posts: 1814
Images: 200
trencheel303 wrote:
The all time winner for me would probably be a gear in shoe MA60. The mother of all lanterns, it's a workhorse that looks good.


The geared MA60 really is the daddy. It was one of the motorway classics, a true workhorse as you say, revolutionary in design and optically fantastic. The downside of the MA60 (and its siblings) is that it killed off a lot of other lovely lanterns.


Top
 Profile  Personal album 
 
 Post subject: Re: Favourite lanterns
PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 8:34 am 
Offline
Member
Random avatar

Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:04 pm
Posts: 27
Phillips MA range
Eleco GR150
GEC Z9554,9454
WRTL Luma/Arc/MRL6/Libra
SGS203/4
Phosco P567.
Urbis ZX3 ( flat glass only )
Thorn Alpha 1/Alpha 4/Beta 5/Alpha 2000

_________________
Long Live SOX!!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Favourite lanterns
PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 12:02 pm 
Offline
Member
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2015 8:44 pm
Posts: 22
Location: Cheshire
Mine has to be GECs, Z9517, we had loads of linear sodium lamps when I was growing up, and starting to take an interest in lighting, (at about 8), but we only ever had 2 types of lantern, Thorns Alpha Five, and in a larger number, the Z9517.

At the time I had no clue as to who made them, or what they were called, but I always found the Z9517 as smart and slimline for their age, and back in the 70s and 80s, (before loosing them in the mid 80s to MA 50s), they looked really smart on their outreach arms.

However it wasn`t until a few years ago I could identify them, it was only on Simons excellent Street lighting UK site, I identified it, I never found it in any collection, or anywhere on the internet, until I joined here, and found member David`s example!, these have to be one of the rarest lantern now to own, (in fact I don`t even think theres a hand full of them anywhere in this country), so David has a real gem there. :D

I asked my street lighting engineer friend, Steve, (who took our Z9517s down whilst working for contractor David Liningtons in about 1985), he says, the last he remembers, they were all loaded in a Transit van, and taken to the Cheshire Highways depot skips in Chester :( .

I so wish I could go back in time to that day, and save as many as I could, as Steve would have put some on his truck, that he kept at his house back then.


Top
 Profile  
 

Display posts from previous:  Sort by  


Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 9 posts ] 

All times are UTC



You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 21 guests



Search for:

cron