134B. Off High Street, Northfleet, Kent Thanks to Louis Cunningham for informing me of these Survivors. Situated within the car park of the disused Portlands club (the former Factory Club building) are two Thorn QC8 8 m aluminium columns fitted with QCB 1075 750 mm single arm brackets and Alpha 1 lanterns. As the grub screw positions in the back castings of the two Alpha 1s are in the same position as they are on my own Thorn EMI branded example, and also feature NEMA photocell sockets, in all likelihood, these will be later Alpha 1s too, but the true age is masked by the anti-corrosive properties of the aluminium columns, which still look about as good as the day that they were installed.
Fortunately (for photographing purposes), the two columns are located towards the front of the car park.
A recognisable trait of the Thorn brackets is their means of attachment to the column - a couple of u-bolts clamp the bracket arm to a plate on top of the column. The open end piece should have an internal plug fitted, although this appears to have gone missing here.
This Alpha 1's 'Opticell' unit is rather moss-laden, but its interior appears to remain sealed against dirt and moisture ingress.
From this angle, the 90 Watt SOX lamp is visible within the lantern.
The second lantern's Opticell is in slightly poorer condition, with evidence of slight ingress visible.
The reason for this is that there are two (what appear to be) airgun pellet holes on this side of the Opticell. Both lanterns are fitted with Royce Thompson P5 photocells.
The first column is seen again through the gates that allowed access to the car park from Hive Lane.
Both column doors are missing, revealing the internal wiring.
A rusty ballast is visible at the top of the backboard in the second column. The incoming supply cables terminate into an enclosure that states that a 25 µF capacitor is required, along with a fuse rated at five amps - I assume that both of these are installed within the enclosure.
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