97KAA. Plant Lane, Chase Terrace, Burntwood, Staffordshire With thanks to Dwight for informing me of these Survivors. Situated on the former access road to Cannock Chase Colliery No. 3, known affectionately as "The Plant", are a number of 25 ft (8 m) Revo 'Phidias' concrete columns, which must pre-date 1959, as this was when the colliery ceased to operate, although workshops for the National Coal Board (NCB) may have continued to operate beyond then. Today, although the site is redeveloped as an industrial estate, these installations lie derelict, with many having lost their Horizon lanterns (also made by Revo) completely over the intervening years.
Out of all of the installations, this one at the far end of Plant Lane is in the most complete condition.
The Phidias columns support distinctive brackets with the tapering profile of the column continuing to a point alongside the outreach arm.
Unlike the Horizons seen on Fish Dam Lane, Barnsley, these are the earlier version, with a more angular canopy, and a bowl that is optimised for running older, MA/V-type mercury vapour lamps, instead of the later MBF type, which had a considerably different optical design.
Nothing remained of the lantern on the next column.
The lack of any pipe emerging from the bracket, for use in attaching the lantern, suggests that the pipe was cut deliberately, and the lantern removed.
The inspection door was missing from this column, revealing a large, open-coil ballast that only just fitted into the available space. Sadly, any identification details that would have existed on the ballast have been lost through rust.
The following column had no lantern either.
The joint between the column and bracket were in an advanced stage of spalling.
The close-up reveals just how severe the damage is - the internal metalwork for the bracket is cracked and rotten.
Surprisingly, the lantern remained on the next column, although the bowl was missing.
What appeared to be a 400 Watt MBF lamp existed within the lantern.
While the MBF lamp would be safe to run at any angle, the original MA/V lamps would have required a magnetic deflector to allow them to burn horizontally, as without this, the arc would bow upwards within the glass arc tube, causing premature rupturing. Assuming that the deflector was never removed when MBF lamps superseded MA/Vs, it is likely to be situated behind the internal aluminium reflector.
The door remains in place on this example, although as the original lock has failed, a stainless steel Tespa band is wrapped around the column to secure the door.
The final installation, and also one without a lantern, is located close to the stopped-up end of the road.
This bracket is spalling at the column joint too, but not as badly as on the example seen earlier.
The door was missing here too, as was the ballast. I wondered if this might be found in the undergrowth nearby, as wires led away beneath the leaves, but I could not see it. The capacitor remained within the base, but its case was too corroded to discern any details.
Subsequently, the lanterns were all saved by fellow collector AgentHalogen_87.
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