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PostPosted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 5:56 pm 
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Phosco152 wrote:
Alpha mike wrote:
Just come across this company selling lanterns that look a lot like the Thorn Gamma 3 and 5

http://www.pierlite.com/au/16292/lunar-major


The "Gamma 5" actually looks to be a GEC5680.

A short browse of the website revealed that they are reproducing the Iridium and Tamcourt!

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 8:12 pm 
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I just had a thought, it is a coincidence that the Thorn Alpha 5 was a 135W SOX offering and the Alpha 9 a 90W SOX offering, when Philips had the MA5 for 135W SOX and MA9 for 90W SOX. The coincidence being the "5" and "9" for 135W and 90W respectively.


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 9:22 pm 
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I have seen the official Thorn LED version of the Beta 5 and I do say it's quite poor but quite good at the same time. Trade price is £160 so I guess it's budget LED at its finest. I have some poor quality photos to follow as and when.


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 7:02 pm 
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nick217 wrote:
I have seen the official Thorn LED version of the Beta 5 and I do say it's quite poor but quite good at the same time.


What specifically is good and poor about it? Is it a case that it looks aesthetically pleasing but offers unsatisfactory optical performance, for example?


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 11:50 pm 
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Nice to see Thorn reusing a design classic. I've never seen an LED version of it but I do think it will look... well, rather interesting.

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 11:05 am 
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I haven't seen an LED Thorn Beta 5 in the flesh yet (no great surprise as SOX still rules the road in Essex), but this discussion about the Beta 5 reminded me of a journey I was making through Oxford last year which made me do a double take:

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Something I have never seen before - a Thorn Beta 5 emitting white light!

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These white light-emitting top-entry Thorn Beta 5s are in Sunderland Avenue, Oxford, and were photographed in September 2013. They are clearly a gear tray conversion (perhaps with a 24w PL-L which would be a perfect fit), as the lanterns in Sunderland Avenue haven't changed since 2008 according to Google Streetview.

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Although it was excellent to see these Beta 5's given a new lease of life (as opposed to the alternative!), sadly Sunderland Avenue was perhaps not the best road to check them out, as the SON lighting on the adjacent A40 was overpowering them.

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...but nonetheless it was still fabulous to see an old lantern cleverly brought up-to-date this way, and it gives us hope that upgrades to white light need not necessarily mean the destruction of old favourites.

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Puzzlingly, the identical residential road running to the north of the A40 (also called Sunderland Avenue) hasn't had its Beta 5s converted, so they have a more traditional appearance  :)


Last edited by David on Mon Oct 09, 2017 10:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 6:57 pm 
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David wrote:
... it gives us hope that upgrades to white light need not necessarily mean the destruction of old favourites.)


Hear, hear! I just wish they would have done something like that round my way.

Thanks for sharing those photographs, David.


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PostPosted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 8:49 pm 
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That's awesome, great conversions and nice brackets too. If more councils did this think of the money saved. Just de-gear the old SOX lanterns as they die and use "big" CFLs.


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 12:12 am 
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Great photos David.

I know that the East Riding of Yorkshire Council have done a few conversions with some of their MA stock although I'm only going off what I've seen in Goole, Howden and Bridlington as my reference points.

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PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 8:11 am 
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I think the white light Beta 5 looks quite beautiful at night. Hopefully this LED version will become popular like the original one was!


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