174GB. Off Vauxhall Road, Vauxhall, Saltley, Birmingham With thanks to Leo Conway for discovering these Survivors. Located in a small recreational area that is to be found between Vauxhall Road, Duddeston Manor Road and Barrack Street are two 25 ft (8 m) tubular steel columns that both support GEC ZD10606 post-top lanterns. These installations appear to have been the recreation area's original lighting scheme, with both lanterns providing overall area lighting. They are likely to have been superseded when 5 m Abacus base-hinged columns were installed on the made footpaths around the site in (I suspect) the 1990s - these were topped with WRTL 2600s in March 2025. The new columns would have improved light levels on the footpaths, as well as allowing maintenance on the lanterns to be undertaken without the need for a maintenance vehicle - both of the original columns would be tricky to access.

The more southern of the two columns is positioned alongside a slight embankment.

These pictures were taken on a cold morning in March 2025 - as the ZD10606s now lie disused, frost had formed on their canopies overnight; once the sun had risen, its radiance began to melt the ice that had accumulated. The column spigot is wider than the lantern's spigot entry is, requiring an adaptor to allow both to fit together. Unfortunately, the adaptor's spigot is too long for the lantern, causing a small section to be exposed.

The bowl's underside looks rather grubby, and a small amount of moss has grown on it.

The column base resembles a Stewart & Lloyd product; it features two access doors - only the upper one is accessible, owing to the banking having built up around the lower one.

Opening the top door reveals a GEC ballast for 250 Watt SON (high pressure sodium) or metal halide lamps, with an ignitor and capacitor positioned immediately below it. I am not sure as to whether a second (and third) gear set is installed behind the lower door - the wiring heading up to the lantern seems to comprise a twin cable for the lamp circuit, and a triple cable for a photocell control, with a separate earth conductor attached to both.

The second column is at the approximate middle of the recreation area, where four footpaths all converge. One of the Abacus columns is visible to the left of this column.

The reducing adaptor here is of a different design to the first, and the lantern is a better fit onto it.

Both doors are accessible here - in fact, the lower door is a little too accessible, and is secured using a plastic cable tie - a replacement for a length of hazard tape.

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