Station Rd Replacements

More of the same happened on the 10th November:

I arrived early today, and so I managed to picture the next Alpha 1 that would be going before any work started.

It wasn't long before the workmen arrived and prepared to remove the column, however:

Once again, the bracket and column were cut once the column had been lowered.. The cell was, as I'd expected, a Hy-lite HL4N.

The new and old columns then exchanged places.

 If anyone wishes to know the number of the column, it is 35446. Considering that the first column on one end of Station Rd is 35471, it shows just how long the road is!

I had thought that the lanterns were all pre-wired back at base, but this is not the case - a few are done at a time, on site.

Once finished, the lantern was fitted to the column and the lifting began.

The excavated earth is piled up alongside the column's planting hole.

This column appeared to be quite easy to put into place - there were no branches or telephone wires in the way, and the ground was quite soft.

A few steps back, and the full column length is in frame.

The next column was different to the rest - it was a fairly new replacement column, with an Alpha 4 fitted. I don't know what happened to the original column, but it hasn't been gone many years. Unfortunately, the replacement column was only 8 m, and so it had to be changed as well. Unusually, the bracket for this column was unpainted - normally, all Derbyshire columns and brackets are delivered with a painted finish. Notice that there are telephone wires on both sides of the column - thankfully, there weren't any large boughs as well!

Again, the ground was quite soft, and so it could be removed from around the column very easily.

Avoiding the telephone wires wasn't too much of a problem, although the length of the lantern didn't help matters.

Once the column had been lowered to the ground, it was clear that it hadn't had much use. It wasn't at all rusty, being galvanised, but then again, the roots of the old columns were very good, and these were only made from normal steel that had been sprayed with a protective coating. I was, therefore, surprised that this column was chopped like the others. The bracket, however, was retained and will probably be re-used somewhere.

Once the replacement column's replacement column (are you keeping up?) had been lifted, the service cable was passed through the slot and up into the base compartment.

The last two pictures I took for the day, showing the column once it had been made vertical. When this column was wired up and the fuse had been fitted, nothing happened. A quick voltage indicator test revealed that the supply was dead. Whatever the problem was, it must have been sorted, as the lantern was working when I checked that night. The Alpha 4 in the background was also changed today, but I didn't photograph its removal and replacement.

Three years later, in June 2008, I acquired this Civic for the collection. A Philips 'Iridium' SGS 253 running a 140 Watt Cosmo-White lamp was fitted in place of the Civic. Details can be found here.