WRTL Vectra

Lantern acquired in September 2008.

The Vectra is now quite a common lantern in many parts of the UK, and is available in three sizes. This is the smallest size of the three, and can be only be used for 50 Watt-70 Watt SON or 80 Watt MBF lamps. In the Derbyshire area, the Vectra can be seen at Junction 25 of the M1 motorway, on the A61 Derby Road in Chesterfield and on the A6 between Matlock and Rowsley (to name a few places). The lantern is also used to highlight the locations of zebra crossings in the form of the Vectra-X, a special version with an asymmetric reflector.

The distinctive angular appearance of this lantern makes it very recognisable.

The lamp control gear is located under the hinged dark grey rear section of the lantern.

The lantern's facetted reflector is similar to the one used in the Vectra's sister lantern, the Arc, although the lamp is positioned at the back of the reflector in the Vectra, and the Arc's reflector cannot be adjusted. The lantern can be mounted on a column spigot or side-entry on a bracket.

A very deep lip can be seen on the bowl - this is incorporated to provide an IP66 seal in the lamp area once the bowl is closed.

The gear cover is held in place by a metal clip just above the side-entry point. With the cover in place, the gear area is sealed to the slightly lower rating of IP54. A smaller label placed onto the main label here carries the manufacturing date code '0723', which is likely to translate to week 23 of 2007 - the 4th - 10th June.

With the cover opened, the various connections can be seen. A red loop wire can be seen - this connects the 'live' and 'load' terminations, and is fitted due to the lack of a NEMA socket on this lantern.

The gear (in this case an OSRAM Powertronic unit) is mounted to a removable plate. Notice how the gear unit is off-centred due to the positions of the fixing screw holes.

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