http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/1357596 ... 5_million/

Confirmation that ALL York's remaining 35/55W SOX is to be replaced... with, for me, the bonus of 70W SON getting replaced. I've been told this is due to be completed by October and will be done by a private company.

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No idea what is happening with the light stock in Calderdale some lanterns have been replaced but others haven't.

Last week I was in Whitby, which still has a lone Alpha 3 on one of the pedestrianised sections of the town and down in Scarborough the MA30's outside of the towns railway station are also still in service.

On one of the columns that is on the 199 steps in Whitby has some solar powered beacon thing strapped about halfway down it, so I haven't the foggiest what its used for. The Trinity House owned Whitby Lighthouse is only a mile south and the harbour lights seem to have been decomissioned but the beacon thing is too far from the harbour to be of any use.

Not a great photo but this was taken my a mate of mine who was with us at the time, the said solar powered beacon is the yelloow thing on the left of the image.
https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/s720x720/11214317_10206714647892183_6688084690374862620_n.jpg?oh=72efe9e0293ce41838149a58ace051fb&oe=56395A6F

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

York is busy at the moment with what is basically like a mini PFI going on... With the exception of top entry on concrete columns (and inacessible columns) ALL 35/55W SOX and 70W SON is going, being replaced by TerraLEDs... Huntington New Lane was done on Thursday whilst I was in Poppleton trying to chase up the crew who'd taken down the only two P110s in the city.

Currently the best way to describe it is randomonium... there is quite simply not a lick of order to it, and the crews seem to do an area to about 80% complete and then decide to move on elsewhere.

What is more, streets can see SON and SOX lanterns swapped in one go and yet the next street will see the SON ones left behind. On other streets the crew will go in to a road with 5 lanterns and decide to swap number 4 then go on elsewhere. In Strensall up at the Parkgate estate right at the very top of the village they have done the road leading to Thompson Drive, but not that road itself, but yet they have done four roads leading off it which are partway down the road, to get to those roads passing by other streets they haven't done. In

Poppleton they went 86% of the way down one particular street, then stopped, then went round the corner to Old School Yard and replaced two P110's and then went home. In Skelton, the Brecksfield loop starts with two columns not done, then three that have been done, then three not done, then one done on the corner where the loop goes into a through-road section which connects to the old part of the village, whereupon three on that section of Brecksfield have been done, then two not done, then on the old village road turning right as if to head towards Wigginton they have done the wood pole brackets - yet if you were to turn left and head for the A19 you will find 2 wood poles not done and two columns not done, except if you turn off on the church green and head toward a tucked away corner by the church where one has been changed... they have had to go past those not done in order to do the others.

On Huntington New Lane there is a section of 8m columns between Malton Road and Geldof Road with QSSs fitted... of the 9 (or 10) columns there, they have gone to number 7 and swapped the QSS with a TerraLED and then moved on to the concrete columns after Geldof Road and swapped every SOX lantern for LED with the exception of the column facing the end of Anthea Drive which is now the only SOX one left on the road.

Currently there is a vast swathe of northern villages which I am trying to keep tabs on... starting at Knapton, then Poppleton, Skelton, Wigginton, Strensall, Huntington... and on a bicycle this is quite a way to ride, especially when you start winding around the little streets in each village.

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It looks like the East Riding are also adopting the v-max as lantern of choice.

They suddenly seem to be rushing to get EVERYTHING changed to LED all at once.

Most of what they are replacing (arcs, celests, jets) have only been in situ for a year or two following a massive scale white light rollout/Sox cull.  Seems a waste.

It also means the end for probably thousands of petit jean columns with hockeystick brackets. The East Riding/humberside architype.

It's the same in Notts. This is just a couple of days worth of dead SOX lanterns from one depot during the Notts County Council LED conversion program.

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/324907/39477660

A rare day off work today and a trip to York took me through the village of Welburn which still clings on to some MBF treasures, namely AC Fords and my favorite being this.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.10327 ... 312!8i6656

As the LED onslaught continues ive decided im going to try and photograph what I can and do my bit for this field before it loses its character forever.

Welburn is within the Malton section of North Yorkshire, which I believe includes the western side of the Moors including Danby, and there are a few MBF treasures to spot in random villages dotted around.

In York the LED replacements are steamrollering ahead. The Bouygues crews are still working on a random scheme of completing an area to 80-86% and then moving to a different area, which is really doing my head in as they seem to stop just before they get to lanterns I want and then move elsewhere only to later replace the lanterns I'm after when I'm not expecting it. All SOX and SON lanterns are to be replaced, with the original mandate now being upgraded to include 90w/135w SOX and 100-150w (and possibly 250w) SON - these Group A lanterns being replaced by 3-tier V-MAX lanterns (roughly 86w power)....... although one V-Max has sneaking its way onto a 5m column, with obvious results:








This being Acomb Front Street - the rest of the road is fine, and one GEC post top remains extant




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Acomb Road / York Road from the A59 towards Acomb has been relit by V-Max's, these replacing ZX2s or ZX3s, and the result is actually a really well spread light distribution.

These replacements will seal the fate of remaining Philips MAs (internally-geared MA50s and MA90s, as well as gearless MA90s) and also some gear-in-bowl 90w Alpha 4s as well as one or possibly two gear-in-shoe 135w Alpha 4s in addition to Holophane QSMs and QSSs.

As I already have these lantern types in my collection, I won't be making huge efforts to try and save the lanterns unless requested otherwise.

Should replacements continue elsewhere, this will see the end for GEC Z9454/9464 lanterns and Z9554s. Works have resumed in Strensall, which now just leaves the Park Gate estate at the top of the village to finish, including roads by the river Foss and off Thompson Drive which are lit by Phosco heritage lanterns (to the traditional 4-sided 'windsor' design) which run 35w SOX...

I will be taking my trailer (or 'Lantern Recovery Vehicle') up there with the hope of getting at least 2 but ideally 4 of these as they are fairly rare. One road off Northfields is lit by Urbis Sintras, though this road may be Housing Association and not covered by the works if so.

The 1970s gearless MA50s by the University have gone, and the Eleco 90w SOX lanterns on Heslington Road may very well be next to go. Meanwhile, Urbis Alura lanterns by the Fulford riverside could be replaced imminently, as could SON Gamma 6s and WRTL PTBTs at the section of riverside closest to the rail station.

GEC Z9480s at West Bank in Acomb have been missed out, so it could be anywhere between 2 days to 2 months before they go.

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It would seem there is also either Saturday working or after-hours working going on for Fridays now....

For the last 2 weeks I have been running checks at least once every working day at the end of Bad Bargain Lane in Heworth on the last installation of Phosco P224 (35w SOX) lanterns left.

In the last week all the nearby roads had the SOX taken down, the pattern being formed was that of LED replacements forming an arc around these remaining Phoscos which for me meant the road would be the first stop on my Monday check route, as a check at 3pm on Friday showed no crews working nearby and these lanterns still in service... but going past on Sunday morning and all but one of them had gone; this process of leaving just 1 lantern behind has been replicated by the Bouygues crews in several other areas in the city, and is somewhat annoying as the odds of me being around when the 1 lantern is taken down are next to none - and the process of seemingly avoiding Bad Bargain Lane until a day I wouldn't expect work to be done has also annoyed me.

Some more work has been done in Strensall, with The Village having been done up to the entrance to the Park Gate estate. However, SOX lanterns on the winding section of York Road between the railway crossing and the Sheriff Hutton road have been left un-replaced, most likely due to the winding blind bends meaning the crews deem it too risky to work there.

Many SON lanterns remain in place, with the policy seeming to be "if it's black, put it back" so Holophane QSM and QSS lanterns are left but Arcs and 2600s are going. If there is any sort of logic to the replacements, then work should start on Park Gate itself on Monday, and more ideally on Thompson Drive and the roads diverging off it.

As a side note, I am trying to think of any 8m columns installed in the last 2 years in the Strensall area simply because if there are any then there will be 1 that ends up with a TerraLED on it... this isn't a joke as it has actually happened in several areas, as the crews sweep through an area just a single 8m column is selected and a TerraLED is plonked on top of it:-

in Huntington this is column 9 on New Lane, in the Westfield ward this is a column in Bellhouse Way just off Foxwood Lane (the end closest to Askham Lane), for Haxby and Wigginton this is about 5 or 6 columns in from the A1237 roundabout on York Road close to the railway crossing..... it's almost like some sort of bizarre gang sign: "Ay-yo this is the Foxwood gang innit bruv".

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Its official. The East Riding Team have gone nuts for the Vmax. Every installation regardless of age will be replaced by Vmaxs.

Even 6 month old Holophane factors are being replaced.  

I suppose the money is there to spend right now, but if I was a crew member id be worried. Once everything is a LED there will almost no maintainance and surely a huge reduction in the size of team needed.

Or maybe LED lanterns will develop constantly like mobiles phones and every 12 months every LA will be scrambling to replace everything with the latest super effecient model??

Shame about the culling of all SOX, not too bothered about SON though!

Bit of good news in Leeds with LED's.

For years the council have been refurbishing the Inner Ring Road and tunnels. Recently on a drive I saw the eastbound LGI tunnel has been converted to LED. I have to say wow, what a difference this has made. It's no longer retina burning SON!

It remains to see if the rest of these garishly overlit tunnels get the LED treatment. I hope they do.