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Eleco HW505

60w SO/H sodium lantern

Eleco HW505 60w SO lantern. An extremely rare sodium lantern to find in 2006, and one that would appear to have had limited sales in comparison to the more popular but similar looking Eleco HW747 lantern. The HW505 is a is very big and bulky fitting that is only actually capable of holding nothing bigger than a 60w SO/H SOI (35w SOX) lamp.

The lantern in the collection came from Bailey Street in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire in October 2006 (my sincere thanks to John F for his help in rescuing this lantern for me). Despite the fact that "Eleco HW505/18" is cast into the underside of the lantern's canopy, a lighting engineer who had been with the Borough's Lighting Department since 1960's refers to these lanterns as Eleco HW502's, so this has caused some confusion as to the actual model number? Looking at the lantern, there were at least two different versions; geared and non-geared variants, so further information is needed to find out exactly which model this non-geared lantern is.

A side view of the HW505 showing the lantern's deep bowl and the low-slung position of the 35w SOX sodium lamp; unfortunately, the refractor panel that was bonded to this side of the bowl was missing when the lantern was acquired; although the other is still in place. At some point in the past, the lantern has had its canopy drilled and a P42 photocell detector fitted (Which is seen sprouting from the lantern's canopy). This none original component will be removed when the lantern is eventually restored. The mobile phone gives an idea of the lantern's size.

Looking at the HW505 from the front, you might easily be mistaken in thinking it was a designed for use with larger 140w SO/H lamps, as it's similar in shape and size to say the GEC Z9450 140w SO/H lantern!

This top view of the lantern's canopy shows that it is indeed as wide as any contemporary 140w SO/H lantern of its day, but is far too short and stubby to take anything bigger than a 60w SO lamp (or 35w SOX lamp). The top-entry mounting point and the unequal radiuses at either end of the lantern canopy are also apparent in this view. Again the mobile phone has been placed to give a sense of scale.

The top-entry threaded mounting point could be for either 1" or 3/4" BSP thread; this example has a thread-reducer fitted, bringing the thread size down to 3/4" BSP. It can also been seen from the top of the cast in boss that the canopy was once finished in silver aluminium paint.

The underside of the lantern reveals that it is fitted with a reflector plate above the level of the lamp, and that the bowl is secured by means of a bowl ring, or bezel as they're sometimes called.

A solitary toggle clip locks the bowl bezel into place.

The underside of the toggle clip, showing how it hooks into the bowl bezel and locks it against the canopy.

With the toggle clip released, the bowl can be hinged downwards on its side-mounted hinges to reveal the lantern's uncluttered interior.

The 35w SOX lamp is held in a low-slung position, which presumably allowed for the fixing of a bulky leak transformer into the top of the canopy above the lamp in the geared models. This model is remote-geared and therefore it has a flat reflector panel, but the geared model must have had a 'formed' reflector panel and short reach lamp support to allow the control gear to fit beneath it.

Removal of the reflector panel is achieved by unscrewing the four fixing screws and sliding the panel forward before lifting it clear of the lantern.

With the reflector panel removed, access can be gained to the incoming electrical cables. The cast lugs beneath the canopy onto which the control gear would be fitted are also revealed in this view. These lugs are already drilled and tapped, so the correct control gear could be fitted to this lantern if it was available. The words "Eleco St Albans HW505/18" are cast into the underside of the canopy. The retrofitted photocell detector unit that is seen protruding in to through the canopy with the two white wires coming from it will be removed and the hole filled when the lantern is restored to its original condition.

An in-service example of a similar Eleco HW505 in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, is seen on its Stanton arched bracket in 2005. I don't know if it's the angle this picture is taken from, but the bowl appears to be deeper on this example?

These two pictures, taken in Bailey Street, Stapleford, Notts, show the lantern in the collection when it was still in situ on its Stanton S7 column; the column was sleeved and the lantern replaced sometime in late 2006. My thanks to Mike Barford for the use of these two photographs.

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Please note that all pictures are by Claire Pendrous, or are part of the Claire Pendrous photographic collection unless otherwise stated; none of these images can be copied without obtaining prior permission.