31G. Watling Street, Hammerwich, Brownhills, Walsall, West Midlands Situated on this part of the most Roman of roads are a number of 12 m tubular steel columns that still, in 2024, supported 1970s' Philips MA 60 180 Watt SOX (low pressure sodium) lanterns; the majority of these having the lamp control gear mounted remotely, although some gear-in-head examples do exist too. One lantern that is not fitted to a column is, instead, secured to a wooden pole that also supports the overhead electrical cabling in that area.

The pole-mounted example is the first to be photographed on this page.

Rather a lot is being asked of this wooden pole for it to support so much apparatus, as well as the additional height of the bracket and the characteristic "bounce" that long lanterns produce in windy weather. The lamp control gear must be housed in the (rather diminutive, in this view) AC Ford box that is attached to the rear of the pole. Given the size of 180 Watt SOX gear, there won't be much empty space in this box!

These Mk 1 MA lanterns employed a different style of rear casting in comparison to later versions. In many cases, the grub screws in these are seized solid, making removal of the lantern slightly more tricky.

The MA 60 fitted to a steel column on the other side of the road was dayburning when photographed.

The photocell fitted is a 1990s' Hy-lite product. Google Street View evidence indicates that the lantern was not dayburning until its April 2024 imagery was captured - not a bad innings for the photocell at all, especially when some of the modern, supposedly "long life" photocells, fail within weeks, or even days, of being fitted!

Two gear-in-head MA 60s were situated at the junction with Chase Road, with the foreground one being attached to an older Stewart & Lloyd 30 ft (10 m) column; the background one being attached to a 12 m Fabrikat.

The foreground lantern has a noticeable downward tilt - hopefully not because of excessive weight being placed on the bracket, although I must admit that its attachment to the column doesn't look too secure.

 Additionally, the foreground lantern is fitted with a miniature photocell, rather than the more common one-part NEMA type.

Another Stewart & Lloyd column on the eastbound carriageway supported a gear-in-lantern MA 50, which must have been a casual replacement at some point. Oddly, Street View imagery shows the MA 50 as being out of rotation in May 2017, and then missing completely in July 2018 and April 2019 before reappearing in the September 2020 image, and having dayburned ever since then.

The bowl is damaged, resulting in three lengths of insulation tape being wrapped around the entire lantern to hold it in place.

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