ELECO HW-898

Lantern acquired in March 2022.

This lantern was removed from Parkdale, in the Bounds Green area of Tottenham, London, on the 2nd February 2022, following the decommissioning of its column, owing to new columns supporting TRT Aspect Eco LED lanterns taking over the responsibility of the lighting to the communal parking area. With thanks to Haringey Borough Council and Marlborough Highways for their assistance in saving the lantern for me.

The lantern is seen in its final days of installation atop its ELECOSLIM 1308 concrete column, on the 28th January 2022. The replacement column and lantern are installed alongside.

The lantern incorporates a special base section that allows it to match the column's contours. The alternative (and more common) option was a base casting that catered for traditional circular column spigots.

The ELECO-Way Slim Post-Top lantern measures 17 inches (177·8 mm) in width, and 20 ⁵/₈ inches (523·88 mm) in height.

The lantern's canopy supports a Royce Thompson ER6N 20 mm photocell dating from January 1997. This is likely to be the original photocell from when the lantern was converted from time switch operation.

Unlike the PT 1031, where the canopy is secured by a thumbscrew, this lantern's canopy is attached to the bowl by means of a brass hinge, with two clips securing it ordinarily. The three grub screws pass through the outer hexagonal part of the base casting, into the narrow circular central part, where they would grip the internal pipe of the concrete column. Amazingly, the three grub screws undid without too much drama (penetrating oil and a ratchet socket driver were required); however, one has cross-threaded, which will require the hole to be re-tapped as part of the lantern's restoration.

Opening the canopy reveals a considerable soot mark on its inside, along with a reference to sister lantern, the HW-828, which must also use this type of canopy.

Unusually, the bowl is secured to the base casting with an aluminium ring that is held down with six screws (part code HW-828/3). This makes the lantern very rigid when assembled, but does then make disassembly slightly more challenging! A very worn 35 Watt SOX lamp is present within the lantern; this carries the hand-written installation date of the 12th December 2014. Modern twin / three-core-and earth cable connects the lamp and photocell circuits - this may also date from 1997.

The bowl securing ring was removed, allowing the bowl itself to be lifted away (once it had been prised off the lower gasket), and the internal construction to be appreciated. There is sufficient clearance below the lampholder for a 55 Watt SOX lamp to be used, and the lamp support can be slid up or down the two support rods, depending on the lamp used. As the lantern left service running a 35 Watt lamp, I shall keep it the same in preservation.

The wires for the lampholder pass up the centres of both support rods. The entire frame has a choice of three height positions, depending on the lantern that it is being used in; however, only the highest position is usable here, as the other two foul the lower bracket on the inside of the column spigot. Despite this, spare screws are included for both alternative positions, even though they serve no purpose.

The canopy cannot be removed from the bowl at this time, because, typically, the nuts and bolts used to attach the hinge are rusted solid.

With the base casting stripped of all components, the three height position turrets become more obvious. Amazingly, the drilled-out piece of the canopy, from when the photocell was fitted 25 years earlier, remains inside the casting. This work will be undone as part of the lantern's restoration, with the photocell hole being filled in. The part code visible elsewhere on the casting is HW-880/1.

The lantern was taken to TAS Engineering of Burton-upon-Trent in October 2022 to have its seized fixings freed; however, it wouldn't be until August 2024 that I was able to collect the repaired parts, despite the work having been completed long before then. From there, they were taken to R.L. Dumelow & Son, also of Burton, for some much-needed bead blasting and (re)-painting. The base casting (seen here complete with three new, freshly-greased ³/₈"-16 UNC × ⁷/₈" grub screws) was painted all-over hammered grey.

Meanwhile, the inside of the canopy was painted gloss white. TAS had filled the 20 mm hole left by the photocell.

The exterior was also painted hammered grey.

TAS had fabricated a miniature column with an hexagonal profile that matched that of the ELECOSLIM column, which was painted in grey primer by Dumelows. The top spigot section, which would fit inside the base casting, is wrapped in masking tape for a very specific reason that will become evident in the next picture.

In order to replicate the appearance of the concrete column, I applied several coats of Rust-Oleum 'Mineral Brown' spray paint, which has a textured finish.

A couple of pencil construction lines are positioned in the centre of the base plate section, to assist with locating the column section correctly prior to final welding.

The base casting was attached to the mini column spigot - it was a tight fit, and owing to the casting's spigot entry not being perfectly circular, some rubbing occurred as the two parts met. The brown wire is in place to draw the supply cable through the access hole in the mini column.

This image shows the now-freed canopy retention clips and latches, as well as the refurbished brass hinge. The score marks on the latches are where cutting equipment was used to remove the jammed fixings.

The base casting then saw the return of its components.

The bowl and lower gasket were the next to be replaced, followed by the canopy. As the existing fixings for the bowl clips and hinge were rusted and unusable, replacements had to be sourced. These were:

3No 8-32 UNC × ¹/₂" slotted countersunk screws and ¹/₄" small pattern hexagon nuts (for the part of the hinge that attaches to the bowl)

4No 6-32 UNC × ¹/₂" slotted countersunk screws and ¹/₄" small pattern hexagon nuts (for the bowl clip latches)

7No 8-32 10-24 10-32 [third time lucky - I need a pair of calipers!] UNF × ⁵/₁₆" Philips pan head screws (for attaching the bowl clips and hinge to the canopy - these would have been slotted originally)

Washers to fit all of the above were also used, though in some instances, the metric equivalents were substituted instead, for convenience.

This view demonstrates the wafer-thin, photocell-less, canopy nicely.

I decided that my 1982 ELECO control gear was perfect for running the lamp, and so, it was installed within a galvanised steel enclosure. The backboard is a cut-down actual street lighting backboard from a decommissioned Stanton concrete column, which is glued into place with strong adhesive.

With the gear wired up, the lantern sprung into life for the first time in over two years. I was surprised at the near-silent operation of the ballast.

Such is the translucence of the bowl that the lower portion (where the lamp is at its closest) appears slightly brighter than the rest of it is.