198. High Street, Brandon, Suffolk With thanks to fellow collector Brian Randall for informing me of these Survivors. Installed along much of the High Street are a number of Concrete Utilities Avenue 3DNN columns supporting Phosware P151 lanterns (Concrete Utilities being the column side of the business - hence, the modern company CU Phosco). Dating from the 1960s, the P151 was designed for running 250 Watt - 400 Watt mercury vapour (MBF) lamps, although today, they are likely to run High Pressure Sodium (SON) lamps instead.
The columns at the more 'rural' end of the High Street are fed on overhead electricity supplies, with the conductors being attached just below the bracket joints.
After the overhead supplies terminate, a two-core insulated cable taps off and passes through a hole in the column shaft.
The lanterns have all been converted to be switched by Telensa radio nodes, although the two-part photocell detectors that pre-date the Telensa system were left in place. A Royce Thompson P42 detector is visible here.
Each overhead service only feeds a single column, rather than looping to the next one along.
The glass refractor bowl is made by Holophane, and was used by Atlas / Thorn in their Alpha 7 lantern too, along with the similar AEI Brampton - if only these examples had been the latter, they'd have been the Bramptons of Brandon!
The last column to be supplied by overhead conductors is located adjacent the bridge over the Little Ouse river.
The brackets must be of a slightly more coarse concrete, given that lichen spores have adhered in greater numbers to it than on the column.
The refractor bowl on this lantern is to a slightly different design.
The remaining columns are all fed on underground supplies.
Underside view of the lantern.
These columns all require the 'drop-latch' style of key, in order to gain access to their bases.
Overhead conductors surrounded this example, although these were of the telecommunications variety.
The Telensa node must pass through a 20 mm diameter hole in the canopy, rather than being plugged into a NEMA socket, which would require a larger hole drilling in the canopy, and would be unsuitable anyway, owing to the curved nature of the aluminium casting.
The bowls clip at the front, and hinge backwards when access to the lantern interior is needed - with the proximity of the BT cables to this example's bowl, there must be added springiness when maintenance is underway!
The final P151 installation saw an Arc 3 bracket fitted to the column, rather than the more angular types seen with the other installations.
The installations are in such good condition that it is difficult to believe that they must have been around 60 years old at the time of picturing in July 2020.
The means of securing the bowl is provided by an "Oddie" key, which was common to many Phosware lanterns.
The same installation again, from the other side, with the other concrete columns visible in the background.
The new and old switching devices are plainly visible; I wonder which is more accurate out of the two.
Although a few of these installations had been replaced by July 2022, examples still remained at this time.
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