Triplex Traffic HE65

This bollard came from Claire Pendrous, and entered the Collection on Sunday, 22nd January 2006. It was originally located on Park Lane in Wolverhampton, and was sign unit number ten on the road (though originally, it was number 28). This is probably my oldest bollard to date - it is of steel construction, with fibreglass panels to allow light to escape where necessary. Following the closure of the Triplex Traffic factory in the early 2000s, production continued, by Pudsey Diamond; astoundingly, steel bollard construction continued until at least 2007.

The HE65 bollards are noticeably shorter than most other bollards are. Another difference is that these are the only bollards of which I am aware that taper downwards - usually, the widest portion is at the base.

The bollard has an access door around the back. This is removed by unlocking two bolts on either side and lifting it upwards. The Triplex sticker is still in place, though it is heavily weathered.

This close-up shows the sticker in better detail. Even though this type of bollard is no longer made, the image of one still appears on modern Triplex stickers. The triangular sticker below shows that Triplex were members of ARTSM - the Association for Road Traffic Safety and Management when this bollard was made.

The vertical lighting spine was missing from this example; however, one will be fitted as part of the bollard's restoration.

A strut positioned between the front and back allows the separate top section of the bollard to be secured by means of a wing nut that screws onto a threaded rod welded to the top section. The smaller wing nut towards the rear of the bollard is intended to support the lighting spine.

I was keen to see how much light the fibreglass panels allowed out, so I placed a signlight and a spotlight inside the bollard, as a makeshift up-lighter, to test the transparency.

Without a flash, it can be seen that actually quite a bit of light could escape. The bollard's old identification number can be seen behind the present one.

This base unit was also included, though it was not used to support this particular example. I believe it may have been used to support a modern up-lighter type of bollard, however it can be used with this one by removing the four horizontal-facing bolts and removing the top ring. The holes in the shell then line up with the bolt holes, and the bolts can be refitted and tightened to hold the bollard in place.

A suitable lighting stem was found and then fitted to the bollard on Tuesday, 12th September 2006. This takes two 8 Watt fluorescent lamps.

As mentioned above, the rear wing nut is intended for supporting the lighting spine, but for some inexplicable reason, I decided to fit it to the centre one instead!

Lighting spine successfully repositioned, and the result is a uniform (but rather dim) light distribution emanating from all six of the fibreglass panels. Notice that the top section is unable to be fastened completely, allowing a small amount of light to be visible in the gap between this and the rest of the bollard.