154 - Rectory Road / Church Street, Clowne

154. Rectory Road / Church Street, Clowne Situated in the centre of this junction stands an 8 m tubular steel column topped with a Thorn Gamma 4 multi-lamp post-top lantern. This is the smaller (914 mm diameter) version of the Gamma 4; the larger version being 1219 mm. The lantern is designed to operate up to three 250 Watt or 400 Watt MBF or SON lamps; however, it is fitted with two 150 Watt SON lamps, and this is probably what it has always run, as one of the lamp control gear sets in the column base is also made by Thorn (the other is a newer Philips replacement).

What appears to be a Royce Thompson P10 photocell can be seen on the right-hand side (in this view) of the lantern's canopy.

The double-door arrangement of the column can be seen here; this is a necessity, owing to the multiple control gear sets required for this remotely-geared lantern.

Visible on the column here are a couple of bolts - these provide a rest for the lower section of the lantern during maintenance; this unscrews and then slides down the column shaft to the bolts, in order to unlock the lantern. Official Thorn literature suggests that where the lantern is mounted to a non-Thorn column, three stops spaced at 120 degree intervals should be used - unlike the two bolts spaced approximately 180 degrees apart on this example.

The three fins that are cast into the lower section provide some tactile grip for loosening and tightening the section.

The installation survived until Thursday, 17th September 2020. A small corrosion hole had formed in the column at ground level, which sounded the death knell. A replacement column, equipped with a double-arm outreach bracket and twin Thorn Isaro Pro-S 47 Watt LED lanterns, served as the replacement. Thankfully, the lantern, and its associated control gear, was saved for my Collection.