Local Philips 'Trafficvision' SGS 305/6 /405/6

The Trafficvision first appeared here in the mid 1990s on the A38 but it wasn't until the early 2000s that it appeared under council ownership. Both side and post-top entry versions can be seen at a variety of mounting heights.

The small Trafficvision is used in several car parks in the Derbyshire Dales area - this example is in Bakewell and is fitted to an Abacus raise-and-lower column. [More recently, these lanterns have been replaced with another type of lantern.]

This grubby Trafficvision was mounted on a column that originally supported an Atlas Alpha 8; followed by an Alpha 3 in later years (exactly the same setup as the surviving example in the background) on Exeter Bridge, in Derby City Centre. The pigeon was, as far as I know, an optional extra! Positioned alongside this column is a telecommunications mast - although it was fitted with an outreach bracket, it never had a lantern fitted. Both the column, and the mast, were removed a few years later; the column being replaced as part of Derby's Street Lighting PFI.

This post-top Trafficvision was fitted to a conical column on Cathedral Road, also in the City Centre. An Alpha 3 with a melted bowl stood here for many years, but the entire column was replaced when the road was altered in about 2003. The replacement column was, itself, removed a few years later; again, because of the PFI.

These two Trafficvisions on the A38 approaching Markeaton Roundabout from the north side were installed in 2004 (replacing two MA 60s) when an extra lane was added to each carriageway. Within a few months of being installed, they both started dayburning and remained this way for some time. Eventually, the column was removed as part of a relighting scheme along this section of the A38 in 2008.

These Trafficvisions are also on the A38 at Markeaton. Another dayburning example is pictured on the right - this is a flat-glass version. It is newer than the one on the left (which would have been installed in the early-mid 1990s) which is probably why there is a difference in bowl type. The lantern probably remained dayburning for much of its existence before the column was (once again!) replaced as part of alterations to the roundabout in 2014.

Further south along the A38, a number of Trafficvisions remain extant, however. These examples (pictured from the Uttoxeter Road bridge in Mickleover) were installed in the mid-1990s as part of a 180 Watt SOX replacement scheme.

The lanterns are group-controlled (the control point being just below the bridge on the northbound [right-hand] carriageway); hence, the lack of individual photocells on these examples.

The lanterns' GRP canopies looked rather weathered when pictured in April 2017.