Philips MA 90-OO
Lantern acquired in December 2025.
This variant of the MA 90 was removed from Waterside, Hadfield, in the High Peak area of Derbyshire. It outlived many of its fellow MA 90s along the road thanks to the branches of a large tree having grown around it, preventing access. With the branches having been cut, one of Derbyshire's last publicly-owned 90 Watt SOX lanterns then bowed out; a 43 Watt Thorn Isaro Pro-S LED lantern replacing it.
This 2023 screenshot from Google Street View demonstrates the foliage growth at the time. Another factor in its retention for so long after LED replacements occurred throughout the rest of Waterside is that the access to an industrial premises is opposite, and heavy goods vehicles exiting the premises need the full width of the carriageway to be able to make the turn; thus, with a maintenance vehicle parked by the column, the road would be too narrow for this turn to be made successfully.
Unlike the MA 90-GO, where the lamp control gear is mounted within the lantern body, the MA 90-OO sports a shorter body, with the lamp extending the full length of the bowl.
The lantern's moulded Glass-Reinforced Plastic canopy is rather grubby, with various lichens and mosses having grown on it. The ER4N two-part photocell detector was missing; as its severed wires remain in the lantern, I suspect that the tree branches must have broken it off.
The lowest portion of the bowl also looks rather mossy, despite a drainage hole having been drilled here to allow any rainwater to escape. Later versions of the MA series saw an extra bowl clip added at the front of the lantern, to improve the internal sealing. A drainage bung was also provided at the back of the bowl, should moisture still enter the lantern.
Opening the bowl reveals the lantern's straightforward internal construction.
A rather battered identification label still clings on to the inside of the canopy.
The control gear was saved from the column base. Save for the replacement photocell (installed in 2008), the gear is original to when the lantern was installed.
The capacitor was manufactured in July 1983, making this MA 90 an early example to use the revised rear casting; the original casting being of a design that followed the contours of the lantern more closely.
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