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East Anglia discussion
http://www.ukastle.co.uk/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=52
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Author:  David [ Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: East Anglia discussion

A few more pictures from my trip to Suffolk yesterday (23rd January 2011)...

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Popular in the Suffolk parishes, the ELECO Silver Ray Junior can still be found in many of the county's villages. The integral-geared variant, as pictured above in Trimley St. Martin (just outside Felixstowe), is most commonly found on telegraph poles due to the absence of a column base to mount the gear remotely.

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A close-up of one of the Silver Rays in Trimley St. Martin. This one has the grooved bowl.

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Remote-geared Silver Ray Juniors are most popularly found on columns, although this one was found to be dayburning. This one has the smooth bowl. Both types of bowl are commonly installed.

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Integral-geared Silver Rays have also been installed on columns.

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This street has four ELECO Silver Rays in a line. Here are two of them.

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Although parts of Suffolk could be considered an ELECO stronghold, the defunct company is now losing its grip.

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A close-up of one of the more popularly-installed new lanterns on the outskirts of Felixstowe. These aren't installed in my corner of Essex, and I have no idea what they are!

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Deeper into Felixstowe, ELECO still makes its presence felt.

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Although other historic makes can still be found, like these Atlas/Thorn Alpha Threes!

I do have some sad news for Phosco though. The lovely old Phosco P160 photographed by Claire on the outskirts of Felixstowe back in 2009 is no more. Both the Phosco P160 and the adjacent ELECO GR150 have now been replaced with WRTL Arcs on the unsleeved concrete columns. The juxtaposition of old and new is almost a sight in itself!

Author:  Alex [ Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: East Anglia discussion

Fantastic photographs David!

David wrote:
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Just one lantern offers a clue to what may have been originally installed, although this in itself maybe a casual replacement. When I was a kid, the GEC Z9554 was a popularly installed casual replacement for the ELECO GR150, which matches Suffolk's historic preference for the ELECO brand which is still present today.


I remember seeing this casual replacement too. The original lanterns were definitely knives, aforementioned in my post above. I'm pretty certain they were GR200s as opposed to GR150s (could be wrong though as it is a long time ago!) as I seem to remember the installations looking very similar to that unspoilt stretch of the A10 you have photographed which uses GR200s:

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David wrote:
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Once a busy Trunk Road which continued straight into Ipswich, the dual carriageway was cut off by the construction of the A45 Ipswich Bypass (now the A14) at the same time, and all that remains is this pedestrian subway under the new road.


Going back to the history of the road, what was there before this pedestrian subway? Would the A12 have met the A45 at a T-junction or temporary roundabout whilst the bypass was being built?

Stelmer wrote:
I wonder if they still work or have since fallen into disrepair?


The GEC Z9554 most certainly doesn't work - I walked along here at night about 5 years ago - as only one half of the carriageway is used as a footpath and so the GEC Z9554 is redundant. The P678s should still all work, although David's photograph shows that Sapphire 1s on smaller columns have since been erected.

Author:  David [ Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: East Anglia discussion

Alex wrote:
Going back to the history of the road, what was there before this pedestrian subway? Would the A12 have met the A45 at a T-junction or temporary roundabout whilst the bypass was being built?

I must admit I have no idea. From the photos, it looks like the old A12 - which is already climbing in altitude before it reaches its current termination point - would simply not have reached sufficient height to meet the new A45, so it is impossible to imagine an intersection between the new roads. Having said that, this topic on another forum sheds plenty on new light on the subject.

Meanwhile, April 1st came a couple of months early for one Essex resident.

Author:  Alex [ Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: East Anglia discussion

Adam14 in that thread believes the A45 met the old A12 at a roundabout (indicated by arrow markings still seen on the road) temporarily, so they must have been level. There is also a scan of a map to prove it, but I wish there was a photograph!

David wrote:
Meanwhile, April 1st came a couple of months early for one Essex resident.


:shock:

Author:  mazeteam [ Fri Feb 11, 2011 11:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: East Anglia discussion

I have seen some funny pictures of roads and poles not being in the right places (such as one that may be in Ireland where there is a phone pole in the middle of the entry into a road)... but i think that one takes the biscuit

Author:  Phosco152 [ Sun Mar 27, 2011 8:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: East Anglia discussion

As David has already shared with us via some of his fabulous pictures, East Anglia and Essex have some wonderful old relics.

Yesterday, he, sotonsteve and I found another relic which is probably going to be the find of the year in terms of rarity. It is very likely to be the last one of its type in existence.

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Phosco P158.

Watch this space for more rare relics later in the week.

Author:  David [ Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: East Anglia discussion

Yes, it was great fun to welcome Phosco152, Simon Cornwell and sotonsteve to my corner of the country last weekend for a lantern swap and to do a tour of the local area, which I hope they all enjoyed!

I won't give too much away about the tour, as I'm sure Phosco will want to post more photos up soon. But having three of the leading authorities on UK street lighting in the car was very enlightening (no pun intended) and I discovered many things I didn't know about the relics that soldier on in my area.

It turns out that some of the stuff in my area is much rarer than I previously thought, and one installation was so rare that we had to return to it after dark to see it in its full, jaw-dropping glory!

Author:  Phosco152 [ Sun Apr 03, 2011 6:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: East Anglia discussion

David wrote:
..having three of the leading authorities on UK street lighting in the car was very enlightening (no pun intended) and I discovered many things I didn't know about the relics that soldier on in my area.

It turns out that some of the stuff in my area is much rarer than I previously thought, and one installation was so rare that we had to return to it after dark to see it in its full, jaw-dropping glory!


Leading authority... stop it you'll make me  :oops:   :lol:

Anyway as David mentioned and has posted his excellent pictures on here before, we did get lots of pictures, unfortunately the light was not the best for taking pictures - David is a "professional" photographer and with a better camera than my point and shoot, but here are the lanterns he mentions.

In Great Cornard tucked down opposite ends of a Cul de sac are 2 Eleco HW 727 fluorescent lanterns on S&L columns.

It appears that the version we saw is a slightly different variant to that in the catalogue, but the lineage is clear.

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After a long day tracking down Essex's and Suffolk's relics we couldn't resist and returned after dark. Unfortunately my camera doesn't do the lantern justice. Lit up in wonderful 2ft 40W glory.

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Author:  Stelmer [ Sun Apr 03, 2011 6:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: East Anglia discussion

Excellent photos. I would give my right arm for one of them lanterns, metaphorically speaking of course!!!!

Author:  mazeteam [ Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: East Anglia discussion

...oh... metaphorically... Right, well I am going to go, and I am going to put this fireaxe back in it's box! :lol:

The lanterns look familiar, have they possibly been mentioned on the Yahoo group or here on the GSV thread? It does look good to still have 2ft 40w lanterns illuminating a public road somewhere.

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