As we move into 2018, LED replacements in my area have picked up again after the Christmas break, and once again at quite an incredible rate. It’s really sad to see all these SOX lanterns (and also a good amount of SON Iridiums from earlier replacements) biting the dust so quickly. I reckon all main road SOX in my area will be gone completely in the next couple of weeks if replacements continue at this rate, and that is a very scary thought indeed.
A note to David and any other Essex streetlighting enthusiasts - make the most of your main road SOX while you can because when it’s gone, it’s gone and it may be sooner than you think! Yes, it is a great shame that LED seems to be spreading across Essex like the current Australian flu virus (and is about as welcome with us enthusiasts as the flu!). Essex escaped the Philips Iridium invasion largely unscathed, but LED is inescapable. Here is a roundup of a few LED-related stories from the north of the county.
For the time being, much of the main road SOX in the larger towns across the north east of the county (e.g. Colchester, Clacton-on-Sea) is not being wholesale replaced with LED, but we are on notice that this will happen soon (it will be Phase 3 of
Essex County Council's LED roll-out). So far, the exceptions have been main road all-night lighting (phase 2 which is complete), the LED trial (phase 1, also complete) and where SOX and SON lanterns with expired lamps are being replaced with LED.
Some smaller towns and villages, e.g. Ardleigh, Dovercourt, Frinton-on-Sea, Manningtree, and Thorpe-le-Soken have had some wholesale replacements. An example from Frinton-on-Sea is shown below:
This photograph of Elm Tree Avenue in Frinton-on-Sea was taken in January 2015.
Elm Tree Avenue had an unspoilt installation of Eleco GR100s from the Frinton level crossing gates to Frietuna Road. This photograph is also from January 2015.
Another photograph of Elm Tree Avenue taken in January 2015.
Elm Tree Avenue photographed at lighting-up time in September 2015.
This photograph take last month (December 2017) shows the installation still unspoilt.
However, the same scene photographed last night (January 2018) looked like this.
The bend in the road, photographed in December 2017.
And the same view last night (January 2018).
The B1033 from Kirby Cross to Frinton-on-Sea,
once lit with Concrete Utilities hockey sticks with Phosco P149s which succumbed to SOX (in the 1970s energy crisis) is now having those Thorn Beta Fives replaced with LED lanterns. Other nearby B roads also lit with CU hockey sticks and Thorn Beta Fives, e.g. the B1033 from Frinton-on-Sea to Walton-on-the-Naze and the B1034 from Kirby Le Soken to Frinton-on-Sea still retain their familiar orange glow, but these lanterns' days are numbered.
The housing estates that do exist in Weeley are lit to the required urban standards, although the lighting is still under the control of the Parish Council. Accordingly, lighting from yesteryear lives on, for example this GEC Z5676 on a GEC ZP3000 coloured plastic column.
Such coloured plastic columns were once common in neighbouring Clacton and invariably had a pale green, blue or turquoise finish, but they were all removed in the mid to late 1980s when they begun to shed fibres. This photograph was taken in January 2009.
The same column and lantern at night, photographed in May 2015.
The above GEC Z5676 close-up. Photograph taken in January 2009.
The same lantern at night. Photograph taken in May 2015.
Weeley has just had much of its existing lighting stock (Thorn Beta Fives, Philips MI26s, Philips mini-Iridiums,
Hilclare cobra heads etc.) converted to LED, as recently undertaken in Little Clacton. In fact the same LED retrofit lamps appear to have been fitted in the SOX lanterns and LED corn lights fitted in the SON lanterns.
The GEC Z5676 also lives on thanks to a conversion to LED. These three photographs were taken last night (January 2018).
A close-up of the lantern.
A view of the lantern and the GEC ZP3000 coloured plastic column at night.
The same retrofit conversions of existing lanterns have started to appear in other parishes.
This Eleco GR525 on the B1027 in Thorrington has been converted to run an LED retrofit lamp.
The street light lights a traffic island across this busy road. The rest of the lighting through Thorrington (with the exception of the B1029 crossroads) remains as SOX lighting for the time being.
Back to the County Council, and they have announced plans to switch off street lighting where there is an "over-provision". This has, inevitably,
led to objections from councillors and stories in the press. But, in my opinion, this is actually a good idea!
When I was young, this zebra crossing in Clacton-on-Sea (photographed in January 2018) was lit with one Thorn Alpha Nine on a Concrete Utilities Avenue 3DNN column.
The lantern was changed to SON, probably in the 1980s, to boost lighting levels, as well as highlight the zebra crossing to approaching drivers with a different light source.
A second column then appeared on the other side of the road to further boost lighting levels. This also had a SON lantern on it. After that,
the small black and white Zebra crossing posts were replaced with 8m columns with Urbis ZX2 "zebra crossing" lanterns running metal halide lamps, which boosted lighting levels even more, as well as provide an even starker contrast in light sources to alert approaching drivers.
When LED arrived, it wiped out the Philips SGS203s and the Urbis ZX2 "zebra crossing" lanterns, as well as the Alpha Nines either side of it. Only the flashing Belisha beacons and the road markings alert approaching drivers to the zebra crossing (as was the case in the 1970s). This photograph was taken in October 2017.
In locations like this, there is clearly an opportunity to remove what are now duplicate columns and reduce the lighting level to a more acceptable level. And it would be nice to see a bit less LED