178 - Salop Road, Overton, Wrexham

178. Salop Road, Overton, Wrexham. Attached to a wall bracket fixed to the building housing Overton Supermarket, along with another on a neighbouring building, are two Atlas Alpha 7 lanterns (the later Thorn type employed a revised refractor bowl design). The lanterns were operating during my visit in April 2019, although both were fitted with LED lamps of some repute that were not optimised for the Alpha 7's optical system. Originally, the lanterns may have run 250 Watt or 400 Watt MBF lamps, although as there was no means within the lanterns of accommodating control gear for these lamps, this must have been situated within the buildings.

The distribution of the LED lamp gives a slightly 'American' appearance to the Alpha 7. Notice the distantly-related Thorn Beta 2 55 Watt SOX lantern attached to the overhead electrical conductor support pole.

The lanterns must look rather peculiar at night, with only the portion of the bowl beneath the lamp being illuminated.

Despite the lanterns being fitted with the wrong lamps, they are in good condition, with the glass bowls not showing any signs of damage.

Thorn introduced a gear-in-head version of the Alpha 7, with a slightly more elongated canopy providing the additional space for the components. Production of the separate gear version continued, however, using the same canopy design that was been employed with the Atlas version.

The second example was fitted to a wall bracket with a much shorter outreach.

This lantern's canopy was in grubbier condition, but was, otherwise, identical.

The bowl created a peculiar distribution of the individual LEDs in the retro-fit lamp.