Eleco, ' Golden Ray' GR550, 55w SOX lantern
This remote-geared lantern for 55w SOX sodium lamps is new and unused, and had originally been destined for use in Hoyland, South Yorkshire. When I got the lantern earlier this year (2006), it was still wrapped in the maker's original blue/grey wrapping paper and hadn't seen daylight since being packaged in the 1970's. The lantern is of a very simple design and its angled lines are typical of other contemporary Elecos.
Part of Eleco's 'Golden Ray' range, these lanterns were available in either top-entry or side-entry configuration, with or without control-gear. They were numbered by Eleco as follows: -
The GR550 family of lanterns are easily recognisable in profile.
With the bowl removed, the simple, clean design of the lantern becomes apparent. It's nice to get a lantern where the bowl is in perfect condition and the lantern needs no renovation work. One of the GR550's that did get used, and is seen in Hoyland, South Yorkshire, just a short time before disconnection and removal. This lantern has a 35w SOX lamp fitted to it. It is thought that these lanterns were used as ad-hoc replacements for damaged HW846's that dated from the1960's, as there was once a large installation of HW846's and only a few GR550's dotted amongst them.
The same lantern seen on its 5-metre steel column in February 2006. By April, all of these lanterns had been removed and replaced with Phosco P567 CFL lanterns on taller 8-metre steel columns. |
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Copyright(c) 2005 Claire Pendrous. All rights reserved.
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.