9A. Off Twyford Road, Willington, South Derbyshire Positioned at one of the entrances to the former Willington Coal Power Station are two tubular steel pipes, both of which support Thorn Alpha 8 lanterns - one being the original type; the other, being of the revised type from the late 1980s. With the power station having closed between 1995-9, and everything but the distinctive cooling towers having been demolished in the years since then, the lanterns are unlikely to have worked for a long time; indeed, the lamp fitted in the later example is smashed, and both lanterns have lost their bowls. Formerly, much of the site employed 25 ft (8 m) Revo concrete columns dating from the power station's construction between 1954 (Station A) and 1959 (Station B). These supported C13723/S "Dalek" lanterns that would have run 140 Watt SO/H / SOI/H lamps originally, and 90 Watt SOX (low pressure sodium) lamps in later years. Where replacements to these original installations were required, 1980s' Stanton 1808 / 2008 concrete columns were installed, running Alpha 4s predominantly, though one had the honour of supporting a much older British Thomson-Houston (BTH) 'Amber' lantern, which also dated from the 1950s, and must have been installed here second-hand after removal elsewhere. The concrete columns were demolished when site clearance commenced, but were left piled up near the entrance to the site until around December 2016.

Two of the five cooling towers are seen in the background, while the older Alpha 8 is in the foreground.

Curiously, the supply cable does not enter the lantern through the pipe; instead, the cable exits the pipe just before it reaches the lantern, and then terminates into the lantern through its rear casting. A compression gland provides a means of securing the cable at either end of its short transition between both objects. Virtually all of the white paint applied to the Alpha 8's canopy has flaked off.

Such is the length of disuse that the internal paint is also beginning to recede through corrosion to the aluminium. The 150 Watt SON-E (elliptical high pressure sodium) lamp features a barium getter - another sign that the lantern has not worked for a long time - modern SON lamps feature getters that do not produce the distinctive golden reflective patch on the glass by the cap.

The other Alpha 8 is positioned just correctly to allow more of the cooling towers to be seen in all of their disused glory.

This example also has the supply cable entering via a non-standard method. The lack of heat produced by the lantern has turned its GRP (Glass Reinforced Polymer) canopy rather rough and green from airborne spores.

The style of the Thorn logo suggests that this lantern was produced between 1988 and 1990 - the 1987 Thorn catalogue still features the original Alpha 8 design.

The smashed remains of the lamp are still screwed in to the E40 holder.

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