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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2020 2:15 pm 
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Welcome to Ukastle. Good finds with the casties.

On the 2nd/3rd links you provided, the extension tubes above the main column are modern additions, the first link is missing one of these. The columns are "standard" height for their type, but don't forget they would have probably had a swanneck bracket on top of the column that would have added a minimum of 1m in height, if not closer to 2m in some cases depending on the design.


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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2020 7:01 pm 
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Thanks.  Aren't these columns a bit too short to be post-war?  I was thinking perhaps they could have been transplanted from another location, possibly from somewhere around Dudley after these areas became part of the Dudley borough?  All other post-war cast iron lighting I have seen is the more regular height, as I said the only lamp posts that were the same height as those in the links were the pre-war Revo lights in Wolverhampton.


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PostPosted: Tue May 12, 2020 5:48 am 
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Manufacturers won't have necessarily changed the casting moulds after the war and would have kept producing the same designs. Metal was still in short supply, so it made sense to make a shorter cast iron column and if required raise the height of the lamp with a swanneck which used less metal than extended the column itself.


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PostPosted: Tue May 12, 2020 4:30 pm 
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This is really interesting.  I didn't realise some shorter cast iron columns would have been made after the war.  I have seen that Revo made 10ft and 12ft 6in columns, but I have never seen any like those in the Google maps images before, not even in old Revo catalogues.  The 10ft Revo Moseleys that used to be in Wolverhampton had wider bases and the rest were the typical 12ft 6in Revo Moseleys that were also extensively used in Dudley and Coseley with just a few in Sedgley.  There was also a 12ft Moseley variant with a wider base and some of these still exist by me.

It seems the lamp posts in Wordsley and Wall Heath could have been original installations after all and that some early 1950s streets like the one in the image could have had a mix of cast iron and concrete lighting.  There might have even been more cast iron columns around the Wordsley/Brierley Hill/Kingswinford area, some streets for example have thin concrete lamp posts from the 80s, so there could have been cast iron lighting in those streets rather than early concrete.


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PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2020 6:09 am 
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Post war lighting didn't always use concrete or steel columns for some reason. Many areas still seemed to use cast iron. It's not really known why, but perhaps there was a shortage of concrete columns. Although the materials are low grade, the production process is complex and they need time to cure, which limits the numbers that can be produced.

Steel columns are quick to make but the material was in short supply. Cast iron being a lower grade material, would have been a suitable substitute but is only cost effective for side road columns. Shorter pre war designs would have also been cheaper to produce and easier to handle.


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PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2020 7:33 pm 
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I know many areas still used cast iron after the war, but there weren't many councils around the Black Country who did, they seemed to prefer concrete when each borough and district became electrified.  I remember that the old Revo Moseleys and Woolwichs in the parts of Coseley Wolverhampton took over being very neglected in the 80s and early 90s when I was a child,  the swan necks were rusting and one Revo Woolwich had never been repainted from its original dark green.  All cast iron lighting around the Black Country was originally dark green, but after the big boroughs took all the other places over, Dudley eventually painted theirs bright green and Wolverhampton a drab grey, although some of Dudley's cast iron columns like those in the Google images were painted another drab colour in their last few years.


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 6:08 pm 
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I spotted a weird survivor close by today, that I somehow had not noticed in the past 12 years.

It’s an old 25ft S&L column, which if it’s like the others, is probably from ~ 1951 or 1952.  It’s had its original bracket removed and has had a REVO Diadem Major installed on a wall bracket about 90% of the way up the column.  It looks very odd, I have no idea why the original bracket wasn’t kept.  Unfortunately I don’t have a photo, but there is a very similar example nearby that’s had the REVO lantern replaced with a Beta 79: https://goo.gl/maps/tBnsUDDi88QcGXeS7


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:52 pm 
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a mini-break away revealed a couple of survivors from the past of interest in County Durham.

Firstly, a handful of rare Eleco GR102s exist at this location on lovely curvy brackets on wood poles. There were perhaps four or five left. Secondly, a deep bowled Thorn Alpha 9. Only one remains.

When I have been to County Durham on previous occasions years ago, the lighting stock was relatively modern. Previously, I remember seeing lots of CosmoPolis installations, though now there is a significant amount of LED as well. So, to see some old SOX still surviving is really quite something in 2020, but I reckon it will only be a year or two before some of the rare installations I saw are phased out. The original style pole mount brackets which go above the overhead wires are being phased out for lower down mounted lanterns on control box brackets it seems.


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 30, 2020 12:56 pm 
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https://goo.gl/maps/pTf4k1qDw6H3yrj47

This SOX lantern has managed to dodge a couple of replacement schemes likely due to being on a wall bracket with gear in a box on the wall behind the signpost in a place where any lengthy maintenance will need a road closure due to the narrow road.

The council eventually re-lamped it about 4 years ago but it has now failed again. The council are now fitting LED retrofit lamps to their SOX stock. I'm not sure if this requires bypassing the gear so some time spent rewiring or they can just fit the retrofit lamp in the lantern and shoot off quickly.

Anyone able to confirm lantern type?


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 30, 2020 6:26 pm 
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Looks like a GEC Z9554. LED retrofits for SOX lamps require the gear to be bypassed, its not a big job to do, just moving a few connections. I suspect the lantern will be replaced, either with a SON or LED type.


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