Local Thorn Beta 2s

Although not as popular as the smaller Beta 5, the Beta 2 still finds a use in this area. The lantern was launched in the early 1980s (although the name had been used for a fluorescent lantern some years before); with a design heavily modelled on the 5. Examples from this period still exist in fairly large numbers today. When the 5 was 'modernised' in the early 1990s, the 2 again followed suit - though unlike the 35 Watt lantern, a slimline bowl was never brought out for this lantern.

This 1980s' Beta 2 on Ladybank Road in Mickleover is fitted to a column that supported a 125 Watt MBF Beta 7 originally. This installation is no longer extant; it being removed when the road was relit as part of Derby's Street Lighting PFI in 2010.

Keeping in Mickleover, Muirfield Drive, which was built in 1986-8, is lit with this style of Beta 2 to this day; click here for photographs.

This Beta 2 on the outskirts of the village of Quarndon is likely to have served as a replacement for a defective ELECO GR 501 in the 1980s.

A Zodion SS9-DLS part-night photocell is fitted.

A slightly more slim-line canopy was introduced for the Beta 2 in the early 1990s. With this revision, the photocell socket was relocated to a more central position on the canopy (emulating the Beta 5), although unlike its smaller relative, the Beta 2 was never available with a shallow bowl.

We return to Quarndon for the next example; this more modern Beta 2 being fitted to the next column along from the previous example in the same village.

This lantern is also configured for part-night operation.

Two Beta 2s on Hospital Lane in Mickleover were damaged after being struck by tree branches.

Broken fragments from the lamp were strewn along the footway.

From the other side, the density of the branches (particularly when in full leaf) can be appreciated.

A slight clearing allowed the lantern to be seen in all of its (somewhat faded) glory. Notice that lampholder support bracket has been bent out of shape. I am surprised that a lamp cap isn't still present in the lampholder.

The other installation isn't quite as badly engulfed by branches.

A Zodion SS9-DLS part-night photocell is fitted here; remarkably, the lamp here had survived.

Sections of the bowl lie amongst the weeds in the grounds of the adjacent electricity substation.

For completeness, a picture of the Beta 2 bowl that I rescued back in 2000 from the same section of road. This bowl remained largely intact, with only the front end (on the right-hand side) showing signs of damage - this end bearing the brunt of the impact upon falling from the lantern.