Local Simplex Aries'

The Aries was something of a latecomer to Derbyshire - it only appeared towards the end of the 1980s and then through to the mid-1990s. It was used as a replacement for Thorn Beta 7 mercury lanterns - the 35 Watt and 55 Watt versions replacing the 80 Watt and 125 Watt Beta 7s respectively. Both the gear-in-head and gear-in-base versions of both were ordered, with both types using either a NEMA socket or two-part cell - so there is quite a bit of variation.

This example appears to have the gear in the base. An SS3DR cell is fitted now; however, an SS4 was fitted previously.

A two-part cell is fitted to this example but apart from that the lantern is identical.

This 35 Watt Aries was seen dayburning shortly after a particularly warm spell in July 2006 - the SS4 here might well be original and the extra heat could have melted the solder to a connection inside the unit. The faulty cell was later replaced with a Royce Thompson Monostar 1000.

Another two-part cell - this time fitted to a 55 Watt version. (The night time shot is like that due to subsidence - definitely nothing to do with me not having the tripod set up properly!)

This 55 Watt example is installed on a road which runs parallel to the busy A38 at Markeaton Roundabout. 55 Watt seems a little too bright for a road which comes to a dead end and only serves several properties; however before the A38 opened in 1983, this would have been a much busier road. The road was probably originally lit with 55 Watt; so the trend was continued when the dual carriageway went in.

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