Off Dudley Road, Town's End, Halesowen, Dudley, West Midlands Positioned within the compound for a car sales dealership is a 20 ft (6 m) Abacus tubular column with a short outreach bracket and early Atlas Alpha 3 lantern, for a 250 - 400 Watt MBF (mercury vapour) lamp. Although intended for greater mounting heights, Alpha 3s of all eras were often seen installed at lower heights when used as general area lights for petrol stations, car repair garages or indeed, as in this situation, vehicle dealerships. While the lantern looks to have become disused, the post is still used as means of supporting a floodlight and CCTV camera at a lower height.

Unusually, the column is not base-hinged, when the Abacus ones supporting Alpha 3s often are, to allow maintenance on the lantern to be undertaken from ground level. This could be another reason that the lantern has become disused, but also has remained in place, despite this.

Unlike later Alpha 3s, the bowls on these types are fixed to the canopies, which slide forward to allow access to the lamp - two clamps on either side of the rear casting keep the canopy secure in normal circumstances.

Although this design was intended to keep the optic area sealed from dirt and moisture ingress, in practice, this was not successful, as evidenced by the delightful slime that has formed inside the bowl!

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