211J. Off Acle New Road, Runham Vauxhall, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Located throughout the sidings for the Vauxhall Traction and Rolling Stock Maintenance Deport are a number of 25 ft (8 m) ELECO 'ELECOSlim 820' concrete columns, all of which support post-top GEC 'Difractor' Z8225 lanterns, for 250 - 400 Watt MA/V (medium pressure mercury vapour) lamps, from the 'Clearmain' range. The sidings are adjacent the main running lines of the Wherry Lines route from Norwich, and have been used for the Maintenance Depot since 2020. Previously, they had been created to provide extra capacity to rolling stock serving the nearby Yarmouth Vauxhall (now Great Yarmouth) railway station in the aftermath of the cessation of Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway operations in the late 1950s / early 1960s, which is concurrent with the likely age of the lighting installations.
Each column has a ladder installed permanently against its shaft. Given Great Yarmouth's coastal position, along with modern-day concerns of resting ladders against concrete lighting columns, maintenance on the lanterns must not have been for the faint-hearted!
The lanterns are similar in appearance to the side-entry Z8128B version, but incorporate a cast iron stirrup bracket that fits post-top to the column shaft.
The columns are spaced closely together, to maximise the illumination provided to the sidings. As can be seen, numerous coaches (mostly of various connotations of British Rail Mk 2 stock) were in the sidings when pictured in April 2025.
Vertical stress cracks are visible in the shaft of the foreground column. A small pool of rainwater has gathered in the bowl.
With the sidings having lain disused since the 1980s (until the 2020 reuse), some of the lanterns are in a poor state of repair.
Only the frame of this foreground lantern survives, while the canopy of its partner retains its canopy. I assume that daring individuals must have climbed the ladders to remove parts in the past. Notice also that the ladders seem to have been renewed at some point, with the type fitted to the foreground column appearing older than that fitted to the other column.
Only one lantern canopy is missing from this group of four that are located at the western end of the sidings.
One of the intact examples seen earlier, from a different angle.
What appears to be a bolt normally seen securing a rail chair (a cast iron clasp that holds a rail steady) to a sleeper is placed at the rear of the upper ladder bracket.
The coach below is painted in the British Rail InterCity 'Swallow' livery that was introduced in 1987, and lasted until the mid-late 1990s, as the now-privatised Train Operating Companies applied their own liveries to rolling stock. Assuming that this livery is not a modern replication, the coach mustn't have seen active service for over twenty years, by the time that these pictures were taken.
The columns are visible from the ends of the platforms at Great Yarmouth station, although Platform 2 offers the best vantage point, as Platforms 3 / 4 have access curtailed to the public at positions closer to the station.
The door is missing from the middle of these three columns, but remains in place on the surrounding columns.
A rusted ballast (of street lighting terminology, not rail!) is visible in the base of this column, behind the buffer stop for the tracks leading into the abandoned Platform 1.
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