81BE. Whitmore Road, Clayton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire With thanks to Dwight for informing me of this Survivor. Located between the junctions of Pilkington Avenue and Seabridge Road is a 35 ft (10.6 m) Stewart & Lloyd tubular steel column dating from the 1960s, and supporting a Thorn (or Atlas) Alpha 5 lantern, which runs a 135 Watt SOX (single-ended low-pressure sodium), although 140 - 200 Watt SLI/H (linear low-pressure sodium) was an option too, and this example may have run such a lamp originally, before being converted to accommodate the SOX lamp after SLI/H lamp production ceased in the 1980s.

How this lantern has kept from being replaced is a mystery, as no other columns remain equipped with Alpha 5s along the road.

A characteristic cranked outreach bracket is fitted, although it is lacking the usual strengthening webbing that these brackets feature normally.

As the lamp fits centrally within the lantern, I am inclined to think that it is an official SOX version, rather than a conversation.

With the column being almost 11 m high, the perspective makes the Alpha 5 seem out of scale.

Interestingly, one of the prismatic refractor panels appears to have been attached upside-down to the inside of the bowl on this side, probably during manufacture. This is unlikely to have any noticeably detrimental effect on the lantern's output and distribution, however.

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