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 Post subject: Re: Scotland
PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:58 pm 
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J T wrote:
Urbis K Lux I think you mean. Mazeteam's favourite.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=k+lux ... 66&bih=677


Afraid not, the previous discussion is about the unidentified "Scottish" lanterns which are similar to an Alpha 8 Mk2. Nick217 provided a link:

https://www.google.com/maps/@55.865633, ... !2e0?hl=en

Indust thinks they may be Vlux.

An Urbis K Lux is a completely different lantern.


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 Post subject: Re: Scotland
PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:20 pm 
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Phosco152 wrote:
J T wrote:
Urbis K Lux I think you mean. Mazeteam's favourite.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=k+lux ... 66&bih=677


Afraid not, the previous discussion is about the unidentified "Scottish" lanterns which are similar to an Alpha 8 Mk2. Nick217 provided a link:

https://www.google.com/maps/@55.865633, ... !2e0?hl=en

Indust thinks they may be Vlux.


Indeed, there was a website I used to look at fairly frequently in the past that has photos from lots and lots of various locations - mainly in the UK but also abroad. I am on a mission to find it now!! - Unfortunately it seems a lot of websites are no longer present! :( - I know as a basic format, the enthusiast had the picture, with the manufacturer, lantern, lamp and type of switching control on one line underneath.

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 Post subject: Re: Scotland
PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 3:25 am 
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was it lighting gallery .net ??

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 Post subject: Re: Scotland
PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 11:05 pm 
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Could be a Sylvania, or maybe some rare european lantern like a Siemens. Reminds me a bit of the installations in Milton Keynes


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 Post subject: Re: Scotland
PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2014 5:03 pm 
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Hello everyone,

I've been here for a week or so now but haven't really contributed much, so I thought it was about time I did my bit. What I'm about to post is a ton of information and images, so if a mod wants to split it into another thread, that's fine.

So it seems Glasgow and the suburbs surrounding it are, as has been suggested previously in the thread, a goldmine for old SOX lanterns as well as attractive looking concrete columns. There were various areas I've been to since getting into the hobby, mostly on the southside and also some areas in the west end.

Let's start off just south of the Clyde near the Maxwell Park area. Somewhere I've never been before now, with roads as wide as a motorway (well, nearly!) and every house a mansion. A very pretty place, and with SOX intact.

We start off on Sherbrooke Drive, just off Nithsdale Road near Dumbreck Station.
These lovely concrete columns stand intact and in good condition with a SOX lantern I don't recognise. I am going to go out on a limb here, and suggest these concrete columns may have originally held mercury lamps and were later "upgraded" to sodium.
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The other direction. You can see Glasgow in the background.
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Old meets new(er).
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Google maps link to this spot: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.84414 ... eXIG7A!2e0


Next we're off to St. Andrews Drive, undoubtedly one of the most upmarket areas in Glasgow. This is just one of the side streets off the main road that had more concrete columns with SOX. You can even see someone's personal driveway lamps in the foreground too. It's like something out of a fairy tale movie.
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This road had larger concrete columns with again the same type of SOX lantern that I don't know how to identify yet.
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The main road itself had a variety of large SOX lamps, like this clean Philips unit, which I'm guessing is an internally geared MA50 as although this road is big, I still can't see it needing an MA60.
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And another tidy looking lamp pokes out from these trees, it is course Thorn's Alpha 4.
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Street view to St. Andrews Drive - pan the camera left, right and up - SOX, SOX everywhere! https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.84113 ... XwqSwA!2e0


The whole reason I was walking down St. Andrews Drive is because I was going to Herries Road, to see more of the concrete columns.
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This is where I'd originally spied them on Google maps but when I plotted my route I had no idea I would see dozens of them on the way here. It's like this whole part of Glasgow is stuck in time where street furniture is concerned.
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Herries Road, on the map: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/She ... d374904313


What's next then? Well, while I was in the area one of the places I wanted to go is North Pollok, which has a lot of double bracketed main road-ish SOX. Another few stops on the train and I got off and was almost directly onto Linthaugh Road. From there I could see over to Lyoncross Road and this set of lamps was already lit, possibly dayburners or just early switcher-onners:
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Linthaugh Road's lamps came on very late so I was left awkwardly hanging around for a bit, so I made the most of it and took this.
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Eventually the Alpha 4s decided to play ball and lit up, way after I'd have expected them to as it was really getting quite dark.
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Here's a zoom shot, which makes a great iPhone background.
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And another angle after the lamps had warmed up a bit:
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I do feel awfully sorry for the people in the houses on the left, as one of the columns (possibly that one on the left) was making an unbelievable racket which sounded like a cross between a very large substation buzzing and stones being put in a blender.

Unfortunately I botched these photos a bit as I kind of forgot the camera had an ISO setting, so I struggled with exposure... still, one step at a time eh?

Maps link - Lyoncross road is on the left: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.84026 ... qcY8kA!2e0


Well, that's most of the "interesting" stuff out of the way, but there are still a few gems from my visit earlier this month to the southside and west end.
West Prince's Street still has some older installations, like this one on the side of a tenement building.  
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A few yards up there is one of these that is broken and has long since lost its bowl and bulb. The council, instead of fitting a new lantern, just left it and stuck a new column right next to it with a newer Philips SOX lantern! I don't have a still, but my first video below opens with that as a scene setter.

And this newer ish Philips lantern.
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Maps link: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/W+P ... e2b291648a


Next I got on a train and headed to the southside to see a friend and of course more lamps. The Newlands and Cathcart area is almost entirely SOX although Clarkston Road is slowly being invaded by SON. Here we can see an Alpha 4  and (I think) an MA50 on Newlands Road, the Alpha 4, like many here looking very tired and missing its bowl:
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A little further back this trio of MA50s is on the warm up - apologies for mobile phone pic.
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And here is Earlspark Avenue, a lovely looking road with closely set houses, chimney pots and TV aerials a-plenty as well as an unbroken line of SOX lamps with overhead wires. It's a typical "suburban street" scene:
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As you can see some of the lamps lean rather precariously!

Turn around 180 degrees and there's Tankerland Road, a crescent with a few of these:
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The same lamp lit and in its warm up stage:
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And an identical one slightly further up the street that's been rather buggered up - it lights but is black in the middle and so didn't turn fully yellow the whole evening:
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Street view link - tankerland road, Earlspark Avenue (ahead), Newlands Road left/right: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.81802 ... jkA3SQ!2e0


That's it for the photos, but I'll close with these two YouTube videos I put together from short clips I recorded and some photos of these areas as well. The intro music only lasts for a few seconds as I know how much a full video with music can bug people.

I'm not sure how to embed videos, so here are links:

http://youtu.be/lK0tb4puOYU
SOX lamps in the south and west of Glasgow

http://youtu.be/zxt48K1MgiA
Concrete columns and double bracketed sorta main road SOX

And that's it, I'm all posted out... from what I've observed I can definitely say this - many parts of Glasgow are still completely untouched by SON and (makes crucifix symbol) LED - and my guess is they will be for years to come. SOX even on main roads is not uncommon and this is well evidenced by travelling at night. Glasgow City certainly seems to have the right idea - if it isn't broke don't fix it, if it lights the road leave it alone. I wish more towns and cities were like this, frankly there's nothing wrong with SOX for most places and it annoys me how some councils will remove perfectly good installations in favour of something else double the wattage, while bleating on about the need to go green!

Long live SOX in Glasgow!


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 Post subject: Re: Scotland
PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2014 5:55 pm 
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Wow! What brilliant photos, especially the concretes. Thanks for photographing them so that there is a permanent record - they must surely be on borrowed time.

It's around 10 years since I was in Glasgow, but particularly in the western suburbs, the traction poles fed via bare overhead lines were quite common - as was the use of Alpha 4s. Good to see examples like that still survive.

However those concretes really are something special, still with original brackets and even more unusual to be fed by overhead line. Do you know if the concretes are group switched - in other words, all power up at the same instant?


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 Post subject: Re: Scotland
PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2014 6:10 pm 
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Phosco, thanks for the comments. I'm not sure about the group switching, as I'd left before they came on. As to how long they'll last, that's anyone's guess. There is the odd one that is leaning at an alarming angle but most still look surprisingly healthy, and from what I've seen around Glasgow they won't go until there's either a PFI or terminal failure of the electronics inside. The council may even still be relamping in these areas instead of replacing lanterns, as the number of unfettered decades old lanterns logically suggests.

I will be revisiting the area as there's plenty of ground I didn't cover, and of course I want to see them lighting up. It was a very comfortable area to be in, quiet  with plenty of room to move around and no-one batting an eyelid at what I was doing. Really very pleasant.

How old do you reckon the columns are? Is my guess of them originally holding mercury lamps a likely one?


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 Post subject: Re: Scotland
PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2014 7:25 pm 
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The concretes are by Concrete Utilities. The design predates WW2 but they were still made to the same basic design up to the 1960s.

The best way to date them is try and find old maps showing the dates the roads were built. I suspect the columns are original to the roads.

The 2nd photograph with the Range Rover in, looks to show 1950/60s bungalows, so I would guess they are post, rather than pre-war.

I'm not quite sure what the lanterns are either, they may be early BTH/AEI Ambers.

If they are, then they would tie up with the columns from new. Searching for old photographs would indicate if those areas of Glasgow used mercury. Mercury conversions usually took place in the mid to late 70s following the energy crisis. The lanterns are older than that.


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 Post subject: Re: Scotland
PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2014 7:35 pm 
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Thanks, that's some useful information. I had the same thought about them likely being original to the road.


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 Post subject: Re: Scotland
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 10:26 pm 
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Evenin' all. I had another trip to Glasgow planned this evening but canned it after the camera I bought had a defect, so instead I'll post some google map links to locations I plan to check out in the future.

I've been on the hunt for mainroad SOX - which of course basically means MA50s or Alpha 4s. Seems there are a variety of locations, including some beauts on the A74.

This location, near the Gorbals, has around 1km of visible uninterrupted (as far as I can see) Alpha 4s and MA50s: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Glasg ... b805ef511e

It'd probably look amazing at night, but the street clutter and traffic would likely get in the way. A mile or so down the road and there's more SOX, which apart from a few small spots never really ended. This MA50 was even so kind as to turn and face the camera: https://www.google.com/maps/@55.836041, ... e3BMtg!2e0

A zoom shot on the right side of that carriageway would be quite nice, and there looks to be less traffic too.

Further on down that road and it's still SOX, with these lovely Alpha 4s - unfortunately, as soon as you go past that NSL sign it's straight to SON: https://www.google.com/maps/@55.836577, ... Ypxsww!2e0

Fear not though, further on the road is once again SOX lit.

There's some here too: https://www.google.com/maps/@55.861576, ... xS_pPw!2e0

Lovely line of Alpha 4s here curving gradually around a bend near Newlands Park: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Glasg ... b805ef511e

Knowing Glasgow's approach to SOX I doubt much if anything will have changed in 2 years and I'll soon be able to say for sure. Watch this space.


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