A lot of the Alpha 8s (MK IIs) in Blackpool have lost their bowls over the years and many were refitted with the newer MK III-type bowls in the early 90s as a result of this making for some interesting hybrids on the streets! As for the Mk III itself, they were mostly very short-lived in my area, I don't know why but they only lasted about 7/8 years in most cases before they were actively mass-replaced. However many of the MK IIs from the early 80s still survive to this day!

Lots of MK III's still survive here most are in quite good condition I think there all in the region of about 17yr old, however lots are missing bowls and some of the conopies and bowls are manky.

The Alpha 8 Mk 2 was a better design then the later Mk 3.
I think the Mk2 could of done with a metal bowl clip though.
The Mk3 is very good at filling it's bowl with water

In terms of quality, obviously you'd expect the cheaper lanterns to be worse. A failing GRP is more of a design fault (Philips later coated some of the GRP canopies like the Iridium). It's difficult to refer to quality without design faults, however the Streetfighter I see as a cheap and nasty lantern, which goes scabby really quickly and just doesn't look good. The 2600 is also another basic lantern which was really overrated in the past, bearing in mind there were other better made alternatives on the market.

I'm going to get shot down for insulting this lantern now ( ) but I don't think Lucidors are great in quality either.

One think that genuinely surprises me is the plastic canopies that were used on a couple of lanterns in the 50s - Where the canopy lights up slightly (but not enough to cause sky glow.) Canopies on the Metrovick SO-50 and the Beta 3 stay clean and fresh, and despite being installed in the 50s, the canopies could pass for something that was installed in the 90s.

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

It's due to the type of plastic used. Lanterns such as the MetroVick SO-50 and Revo Sol D'Or were all-perspex, with the canopy opal perspex and the bowl clear perspex. The canopy of the Beta 3 is made of the same type of plastic as a wheelie bin. Therefore, the reason why these lanterns stay so clean looking is because they are not GRP and have no glass fibres to shed.

Yes, and the canopy of the K-Lux is the same.... I've seen a crow struggling to get a purchase atop a K-lux due to the plastic canopy, and the bird nearly fell off!

The Alpha 8 Mk3 does have some good points to the design: the functionality to bolt on a post-top adaptor, and the gear tray being bolted to the column so the lantern hinges open from the mid point (which thus gets rid of trying to replace a ballast upside down whilst up in the air).

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There's an Alpha 8 near to me which has no bowl clip so a couple of loops of brown electric tape has been stuck about a 1/5 of the way from the lantern 'edge' and this has now failed.

There use to be a concrete column nearby which had a completely wrecked Phillips MI55 fitted, the column itself was in two bits after a business premises which were located nearby were knocked down and this was about 5 years ago.

The bowl from it is the only suvivor and that has ended up in my collection.

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

In some of the rural towns of county Durham where a mixture of lanterns were used (basically anything they could find) these range from Lucidors, MRL6s, ZX2s and 3s, SGS203s, Alpha4s, Alpha8s MkIII, ZXU1s, Eleco Golden Ray, Alpha3s, Albanys, Simplex Jupiter lanterns, Beta2&5s, Gamma6s, Beta79s, Alpha9s. The list goes on but the lucidors were probably the original lanterns fitted and shows how many have been casually replaced over the years. Some wooden poles have seen up too four lanterns. Hopefully these will not end up being replaced with boring ZX2s and Oracles.

The hinging of the Alpha8 canopy was a unique design and if Thorn had carried on developing could have been a good lantern with improved optics, a curved glass option, aluminium canopy and metal bowl clips instead of a single plastic one. It could of also done with a post top option without the need for an external adaptor.

If it had been developed as a dual spigot lantern, like the QSM, it would be a bit longer so as to incorporate a trapdoor mechanism... however it could have aided the design because there'd be room on the underside for a trihead bolt to be fitted, which would lock/unlock a cam lock to secure or open the hinging canopy. This could have been used instead of the screws... and with the control gear on the static part of the body, the optic would be on the bit that swung down, and so a 'sealsafe' type optical arrangement could have been made that completely eliminated the need for bowl clips.

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I think there was a design fault with most of the older Thorn bowl clips; the Alpha 4 and 8 look although they use similar clips and both lanterns are prone to losing their bowls.