131A. High Street, Glaisdale, Whitby, North Yorkshire With thanks to Dwight for informing me of these Survivors. Four elderly top-entry wall brackets remain in service in this hilly village, with all supporting GEC lanterns for 80 - 125 Watt MBF (mercury vapour) lamps. The lamp type for these was confirmed by one lantern operating in daylight during my visit, and the cover hanging off the wall bracket control gear box for another.
The lowest of the four lanterns is a Z5581B - this was the example that was day burning.
The lanterns are all switched using photocells installed remotely.
The faulty photocell is a Royce Thompson Oasis 1000 - ordinarily, these are very reliable, and seldom develop faults; however, there is a small crack in the casing of this one, which has probably caused moisture to seep in, and corrode the components.
The close-up of the lantern reveals that it is 90 degrees out of alignment - the bowl refractors facing should be positioned to face over the road instead. As the 'back' of the bowl (as it appears here) has been masked out with black paint, the lantern has probably been like this for many years.
The cable supplying the photocell bracket is in very poor condition, with the outer sheath having degraded in several places through UV exposure, revealing the cores within.
The next lantern along, another Z5581B, was installed on a corner bracket.
Thankfully, this example was extinguished in the daylight, though the photocell bracket is secured to the structure of the lantern bracket using a plastic cable tie, rather than being attached to the wall too.
This lantern was also installed at the wrong alignment.
A Z5591SB was next.
The Wardle box cover was hanging off this installation; the previous cable tie repair having failed. This allowed the lamp control gear to be seen.
The supply cable terminates into a Midland Electrical Manufacturing (MEM) porcelain re-wirable fuse carrier, where the live supply to the photocell connects. The ballast (and possibly, the capacitor too), is a replacement that was fitted in January 2016.
Again, the photocell bracket is attached to the structure of the lantern bracket. As this lantern is also not positioned correctly, whomever installed these originally probably thought that the bowls had to be positioned in this way for the correct light distribution along the road.
The hanging box cover is pulling on the photocell cable - another wiring issue that makes me wince!
The final installation came in the form of another Z5580-derived lantern.
This wall bracket was likely to be newer than the other examples were, as it is far more utilitarian in its design. The section of bracket pipe that is closest to the wall looks a tad ropey. Curiously, this lantern is fitted with the Z6768 plastic bowl that is more commonly seen fitted to the Z5590 series. This makes me wonder if, at some point in the past, the bowls from this and the previous installation were swapped, as they will both physically fit both lanterns.
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