Local Philips B/SGS 451s (Mini Iridiums)
The little brother of Philips' very popular Iridium range of lanterns, the Mini Iridium first appeared in Derbyshire in 2010, with all examples utilising LED technology; a hitherto untried lighting medium for streets in the County.
The first Mini Iridium (running 24 LEDs) to be installed in a publicly-accessible area in Derbyshire is pictured below. This is on a footpath between Tor Rise and Whitewood Way in Starkholmes (an area between Cromford and Matlock), and was installed at some point of the week commencing Monday, 14th June 2010, when the footpath was closed for resurfacing and the steps on the footpath were replaced.
This short footpath link on a new housing estate in Church Gresley is home to three Mini Iridium lanterns.
The locknut for the lantern's miniature photocell can be seen at the top of the canopy.
Again, a 24 LED matrix provides the lantern's output.
Mini Iridium lanterns were retro-fitted to the existing columns on the A5012 "Via Gellia" road between Cromford and Bonsall. The road is narrow, with multiple bends along the way. This made parking any sort of maintenance vehicle hazardous, owing to the difficulty for other road users in seeing around it; therefore, the LED lanterns were fitted as a way of reducing maintenance visits. Ironically, not long after one of the lanterns was fitted, its miniature photocell decided to fail, resulting in the lantern dayburning until the fault was rectified.
The first column to support one of the new lanterns seen when leaving Cromford was this cast iron Revo 'Moseley', complete with a later AC Ford swan neck with integrated housing for a cut-out.
The Mini Iridium replaced a Thorn Beta 5 35 Watt SOX lantern.
The reason for housing the cut-out at the top of the column is because the usually accessible base section was...well...somewhat inaccessible!
Next, the column mounting heights increased to 6 m. The already-small lantern looked miniscule at this mounting height.
Here, the lantern replaced a Philips MI 36 55 Watt SOX lantern fitted to a side-entry bracket. For ease of installation, the bracket was removed and the lantern installed directly on to the column spigot.
A 6 m hockeystick followed. There had previously been an ELECO GR 501 55 Watt SOX lantern fitted here.
As the outreach forms part of the column on a hockeystick, the new lantern was mounted side-entry. Rather surprisingly, the combination of this type of lantern and column seem to complement each other rather well.
The final column on the stretch also supported a GR 501.
The difference here was that the GR 501 was attached to a removable bracket, and so the lantern was again attached directly to the column spigot. I am rather surprised that the bracket could be removed, given that it had been attached to the column for at least 30 - 40 years!
Age was beginning to catch up with this installation, however - a so-called "temporary" door had been fitted to the column shaft, suggesting that the lower portion of the column's actual door was damaged or had rusted through.
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