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PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:57 pm 
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Would someone be able to list the areas in GB that still have a high abundancve of SOX lighting?


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 8:55 pm 
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Funny I was going to ask something similar for the reason that I am going to be taking driving lessons later this year, and I'm disappointed that the SOX lights are disappearing in my home town rapidly and I won't know what it's like driving down roads with SOXs as by the time I have a car, all the roads will have LED instead.  :(


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 12:46 am 
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Whilst I'm sure there are plenty of Ukastle members who can point you in the right direction, it often brings much relief to those discovering that a particular area still retains its SOX lighting, despite the move by neighbouring LAs to shift over to LEDs.

From my own experience, SOX in Greater Manchester has been on the decline for a while. The largest loss was around 2007 with the Amey PFI scheme for Manchester Council. This was probably the last bastion for Atlas Amber Minors, Eleco and Phosware lanterns (not forgetting all the GR150s, 102s and 200s).

Meanwhile, Trafford MBC is well advanced on a programme which will see off both SOX and SON in favour of LEDs, although most of the existing columns (including concretes) are being reused.

The only other borough which maintains any sizeable SOX content is Stockport MBC (nearby Tameside abandoned SOX from the early 90s onwards).

Whilst the 135W lantern is pretty much extinct here as a result of the "Cosmops", the side streets of many districts have for the most part retained their Beta 5s, Gamma 6s, MI50s and MI36s. These include Reddish, Woodley, Romiley, Hazel Grove, Bramhall and Marple. There have been casual replacements of some of them with either LED or QSMs. or the occasional WRTL Libra.

2017 brought in an interesting change, in terms of Stockport's elderly CU / S&S 5m concretes. Whilst those found to be unsound have been replaced, others with just spalling bracket arms are being sleeved to 6m, but the existing lantern ie a Beta 5 is being refitted. Whilst it may be a short term economy measure, it is perhaps good to see the re-use of these lanterns.

Although outside the scope of Stockport MBC, another area where SOX is still to be found (and maintained it seems) is the stretch of the M60 from J25 (Bredbury) to J24 (Denton Island). Whilst the nearby M67 SOX has been shamefully allowed to almost completely die out, the M60 portion is still in pretty good shape. A further line of SOX (albeit quite short) can be found further down from J1 (Stockport Pyramid). The whole stretch of what was previously the M63 was lit with MA60s. This section is all that remains, following a relighting to SON a few years ago.

Hopefully Stockport and other areas will still be a haven for SOX , even after "deadendwaterfall" has been awarded his driving licence.


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File comment: A fairly typical example of what can still be found in and around Woodley and Romiley. A 5m concrete Utilities column with a Philips MI50 lantern, although originally it was fitted with a Sangamo controlled Amber Minor.  
Installed by the old Bredbury & Romiley UDC to supplement the existing cast iron Needham columns in the area, they were the most numerous type, although top entry ElecoSlim 848s were also used in some quantity.

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PostPosted: Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:00 pm 
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Hertfordshire... or at least last time I checked.


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 9:46 pm 
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Location: Colchester, Essex
Essex! See here for examples* in North East Essex.

* Wellesley Road in Clacton on Sea has now been partially relit with LED.

Also see here for a particularly well-maintained Highways England installation just outside of London which was still going strong when I drove along it last month.

Although there's still tonnes of SOX in Essex to enjoy, all main road SOX will be disappearing by January 2019.

There is no wholesale replacement of side road SOX planned, but Essex County Council has stopped buying SOX lamps of all wattages and when a SOX lamp expires, the whole lantern is replaced with an LED lantern. Therefore we may expect some side road SOX to hang on in Essex until, say, around the middle of the 2020s ...unless the County Council decide on a "Replacement by LEDs Phase 4" before then.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:22 am 
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In Lincolnshire, although all the main roads seem to have been switched over to TRT Aspects, residential side roads still represent widespread use of 35w SOX.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 6:42 pm 
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One of the better places down south is Wiltshire. Unlike other counties where SOX barely exists or is in the process of being phased out by LED roll outs, Wiltshire and the Borough of Swindon both have large amounts of SOX, main road and side road, and no apparent plans for mass replacement.


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:19 pm 
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Somerset is still full of SOX lanterns but not for much longer as they are all being replaced for the new Urbis Axia2 led lanterns


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 11:13 pm 
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I was on a short holiday up in County Durham recently.

As is the usual practice, I had a good look at the streetlighting in this area.

There is a good mixture of stuff here, although SOX looks to have been on the decline in most urban areas for a while. LED is beginning to get a foothold, although Urbis SONs are plentful.

Whilst the lanterns are fairly standard, there is quite a variety of column. As well as tubular and sectional steel types, there are still plenty of wooden pole mounted lanterns with their traditional overhead feeds, especially around the old colliery villages, such as Easington.

Pretty much all of them have been relit in recent years, however I was pleased to see that in one semi-rural backwater, there is a road which still retains most of the original SOX lanterns.

In addition to this, there is also a fair stretch of SOX remaining on the A19 between Easington and Cold Hesledon. The MA60s although not seen at night, look to be in active use.

Further stretches towards Durham are SON lit, using what appear to be Thorn Alpha 2000s.


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File comment: One of several pole mounted lanterns still in use. A couple of lanterns and brackets have been replaced by Urbis types at a lower mounting height.
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File comment: The original pole mounted lanterns look like BTH Ambers.
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File comment: One of the pole mounted survivors which in this case looks to be an Eleco GR102.
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File comment: A section of the A19 still lit with MA60s. The Shell garage on the left is also worthy of note as it still retains a few column mounted Alpha 3s.
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a191b.jpg [ 164.11 KiB | Viewed 133486 times ]

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PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2018 6:08 pm 
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The A27 south coast trunk road used to be exclusively lit by SOX, but its practically all gone. There is none left in Hampshire, but in West Sussex, a small section east of Chichester, by the Portfield roundabout still survives.

Image

Further east at Worthing its all gone as well, except for this MA60 which has escaped, probably helped by the tree.

In East Sussex, a stretch a couple of miles long with both central reservation, slip road and verge examples still survives at the Hove and Brighton interchanges.

This is the scene at the A2038 junction for Hove.

Image

This is the scene at the A23 interchange for Brighton.

Image

All these images are from a dash cam. I can't see these installations surviving much longer.

Meanwhile, over in Belgium, once a stronghold of SOX lighting, the Dutch enthusiasts have found information that was asked in the Walloon parliament about SOX replacement by LED.
Translated it reads:

The Walloon Government announced that by 2021, the entire Walloon road network should be lit by LED lamps.

Last year, the Walloon executive had already decided to equip motorways and national LEDs on some 2,300 km of roads (875 km of motorways, or 73,000 luminaires).

The announcement of the Walloon Government therefore extends this decision to the 6,200 km non-structuring Walloon road network.

By 2021, 18,000 LED luminaires will replace the older generation of luminaires.

In order to implement this objective, a budget of 20,000,000 euros is needed, which is spread over four to five years (more than 4 million are planned in 2018).

In addition, this proactive policy aimed at modernizing public lighting allows us to achieve structural savings, in particular by reducing energy consumption by 57%.


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