111E. Blackwood Road, Two Gates, Tamworth, Staffordshire With thanks to AgentHalogen_87 for informing me of these Survivors. Installed throughout this estate spine road are a number of 6 m tubular steel Fabrikat columns, with the majority supporting Simplex Aries lanterns; the remainder (probably, an earlier or later order batch) supporting Philips MI 50s - both lanterns being intended for 35 Watt SOX (low pressure sodium) lamps. This is an unusual choice of wattage for this mounting height - ordinarily, 55 Watt SOX lamps were the choice for 6 m. The cul-de-sacs leading off Blackwood Road support post-top lanterns also running 35 Watt lamps, but at the more usual 5 m mounting height. CU Phosco P107s serve as the main choice of lantern on these roads, except on Chillingham, where Thorn Gamma 6s are employed instead.
The estate's BT chambers carry 1985/6 as the years of manufacture. This provides a useful indication as to the approximate age of the installations.
The standard Staffordshire photocell, a Zodion SS6, is fitted in this Aries.
The lamp's black cap indicates that it is a 26 Watt SOX-E type, which is physically the same size as a 35 Watt lamp is, and will work on the other lamp's control gear, although the economy option that these lamps offer only applies when used on dedicated SOX-E gear. Unlike my own 35 Watt example, the lamp control gear on these Aries lanterns is situated remotely, in the column base.
The next column along, being on the opposite side of the road, allows the Aries to be seen from a different angle.
The GRP canopies of these lanterns show the considerable lichen growth that has developed in their (almost, at the time of writing in September 2024) forty years of service.
One of the MI 50s further along Blackwood Road is depicted, to allow the difference between the two designs to be appreciated.
Unusually, this example's bowl has been installed backwards, with the clip being at the front of the lantern on this example.
The P107s are all of the transparent-bowled, short overhanging canopy variety. These examples are on the road known as Sudeley.
A prismatic glass refractor dome surrounds a portion of the lamp, though as the refractor is designed for diffusing much smaller elliptical discharge lamps, the use of such optical controls is rather limited. Owing to this, and the fact that the lantern requires disassembly to change the lamp on SOX versions that are equipped with refractor domes, many of the refractors have been removed completely, leaving only a bare lamp within the lantern.
From this angle, a slight translucence to the Perspex bowl is evident.
The lack of transparency was more evident on this example's bowl, which was to be found on a column located further along Sudeley.
This is one of the P107s to have lost its refractor dome.
The use of Gamma 6s exclusively to Chillingham suggests that it may be of slightly later construction.
Presumably, in an attempt for them to match the appearance of the P107s, these lanterns are of the wider-canopied variety.
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