Hello,

In our (French) forum, we wondered which was the most popular lantern in UK. It's easy to tell for some countries like France for example (THORN EUROPHANE Pilote), in UK I'd say SCHREDER MC (ZX) but I'm not sure, there are others lanterns which are very popular like Alpha 8, Z8600 (MRL 6), Arc...

Which is your top 5 for lanterns in UK ?

Thanks.

Motorways:
- Iridium
- Sapphire
- ZX
- Trafficvision
- MA Series

Primary and Secondary A-class roads (green and red) the former may be maintained under the English Highways Agency. (Using the A628 and A616 as examples)
- Trafficvision (Flouch roundabout is lit with these)
- ZX (used to illuminate the A616 between Langsett and Midhopestones.)

B-Roads (marked orange on OS maps, yellow on AA atlases. Often maintained by local authorities.)
- Various types are used.

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

It tends to change with the times, plus you have major road and minor road classifications to think of. For example, well into the mid 1990s the most popular minor road lantern was the Thorn Beta 5, whilst the most popular major road lantern at the time was the Philips MA range. More recently, it seems the Philips Iridium range is the most popular - but the trend is now moving towards LED lanterns.

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I think the MRL 6 and Alpha 8s are strong contenders on the SON front, though maybe not so much in last half a decade or so.

Thank you.

My question was for nowadays. Yes, the last time I went in UK (2010), I was surprised to see so many Iridium lanterns.

Phozagora, the Philips MA 50/60/90 (SRS201) series is now a minority if not almost extinct lantern on British motorways. The Alpha 8 is also due to its age rapidly being replaced. The same with Beta 5s, Philips Mi50/26 35W SOX lanterns.

The MRL6, Vectra and ZX series are still quite popular although a relighting scheme in the south of England is replacing 1000s of ZX1/U1s and ZX3s. The ZX series is still widely used in London but it is beginning to fall from favour.

The Iridium and Sapphire tend to be the most popular motorway (and probably main road) lantern for new installations.

For residential areas it is still quite mixed although the Libra running CFL has come from a practically zero installed base to 10's of thousands being installed in the last 5 years especially in the south of the UK, but they are also installed elsewhere.

The Stela LED lantern is also becoming increasing popular. Smaller versions of the Arc and the Iridium are also common in residential areas.

There is still quite a bit of regional bias when selecting lanterns, so some types are only seen in some areas, but the Iridium, Arc, Stela and Libra are generally the most common lanterns for new installations across many different areas.

As others have said, it depends on regional areas, but I should imagine the Iridium could be in for the running as they have been popular for many years now with a lot of different councils. Numbers will probably start to drop now with the increase of LED lanterns being installed such as the Luma and the Stela, though. Other very common lanterns that can be found are SGS203s, Sapphires and the MA series, although as Phosco152 points out, the MA series are less popular than they used to be.

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

For the North East it will probably be balanced between the Iridium, Arc and Sapphire. Huge numbers of Arcs were installed on Newcastle PFI, huge numbers of Iridiums on Sunderland and South Tyneside PFI, virtually all main road lighting in Gateshead plus Western Bypass/A1 is Sapphires. Northumberland and Durham still remain a very mixed picture as does Cumbria, but replacements are starting to creep in here.  Probably a tie up here between Iridium and Arc.

I think, for the moment, my choice for our most popular lantern across the country would have to be the Iridium, you can't go anywhere without seeing one!

But I wouldn't be suprised if the Arc was quickly catching up!

I think everyone pretty much shares the same views in this thread with the same old names cropping up time and time again, not least the Iridium!

London as a unique city probably views the ZX range as its most popular; all 33 Boroughs have at some point installed ZX lanterns in bulk. Some boroughs are practically ZX exclusive or at least were until the recent LED trend.