Stores Road Council Depot, Derby

Derby City Council's Commercial Services Depot on Stores Road is home to a variety of lanterns - this page details most of them. Prior to the commencement of the Street Lighting PFI, this depot was where Derby's Street Lighting Maintenance team was based. Consequently, the depot lighting was maintained by the Street Lighting section, in particular by Jeremy Skertchly in later years. Jeremy has provided additional information to accompany most of the individual lanterns seen here.

Thanks to John Grace for allowing me into the depot in order for the photographs to be obtained.

The first point of call was a visit to the 'Tram Sheds' - before being made into a council depot, the site was used as a depot for the Derby Corporation Trams; the high ceilings of the sheds prove this heritage. Attached to the far wall are several empty wall brackets alongside control gear boxes. These brackets supported long-abandoned Atlas Alpha 3s until 2003 - one of these lanterns is now preserved in my collection.

Also of note in the Tram Sheds were a small number of (equally disused) GEC 'Clearmain' Z8403 lanterns attached to the ceiling struts. These are still fitted with mercury lamps. Cast control gear boxes are installed alongside.

Sadly, in January 2021, the Tram Shed building was undergoing gradual demolition. I was unable to tell whether the Clearmains remained attached or not. A few weeks later, the building was gone, with the site given over to parking for Council vehicles.

Attached to what was once the tram depot's stable block, another Atlas Alpha 3 can be seen. This still works:

"Alpha 3 below clock tower - 400 Watt MBF, remote gear, part-night Q7 [photocell].

A later Thorn Alpha 3 is attached to a Stewart & Lloyd column/bracket adjacent the former Street Lighting storeroom:

"Alpha 3 on steel column adjacent stores - 400 Watt MBF, remote gear in column base, P5 thermal cell, all night."

A WRTL Arc is seen on another Stewart & Lloyd column/bracket; this was where my original Z8430CM was fitted:

"Arc lantern on steel column outside stores - 100 Watt Iwasaki clear elliptical SON, integral gear, part night, control by Sangamo time switch in column base. (Originally a large second-hand GEC lantern was fitted here in place of "your" lantern. This was smashed by a lorry around 2004, which also fetched down all the overhead cables here. This was when the Arc was fitted and the overhead cables, etc. were replaced.)"

A Philips SGS 204 is seen attached to a 25 ft Stanton concrete column a little further along the yard:

"Concrete column with integral gear Philips 400 Watt SON lantern, all night cell."

A Thorn Alpha 8 is attached to the building that now houses a series of offices; one of these used to be the Street Lighting Maintenance office:

A Thorn Beta 79 fitted with a 125 Watt MBF lamp is attached to another part of the former storeroom:

Another (albeit newer and column-mounted) Alpha 8 is seen alongside a wall-mounted Thorn Areaflood fitting:

"Also of interest in the depot are an Alpha 8 on a steel column running a 250 Watt clear elliptical (USA) mercury lamp and a wall mounted Areaflood, next to this, running a 400 Watt clear elliptical (USA) mercury. These two illuminate the grit/salt store pile area."

The depot also contains a three ornate corner brackets; the example below is the only one to still be fitted with a lantern (the bracket has been modified to accommodate the side-entry lantern):

"Alpha 3 on ornate wall bracket above gatehouse. 400 Watt MBF mercury, remote gear, part night Q7 cell (good shot of the cell)."

The other two brackets are now abandoned, and in the case of one of them, only the actual wall fixing plate survives:

The final lantern is a GEC ZD10839 in the depot's car park. The column has been disconnected for many years - it was fed from an adjacent building but the supply was disconnected when the building was demolished. A tree has since grown around the column - this is the reason why an attempt has never been made to remove it, as by now the tree's roots will be established around the column base. The column door was loose; this allowed me to take a look in the base. The lantern was designed to run three mercury lamps and indeed, three individual gear sets were crammed into the base.

This installation had disappeared by October 2014.

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