Yeah Hexham has gained a load of Sapphire 1's past the Station, the High Street had been done a while back.

They still seem to install the odd Arc now and then. I have also spotted Airtrace's in the town too (look odd on a Eleco aluminium column)

The arc is Northumberlands staple group A replacement lantern and has been for the last few years previously the Vectra, ZX3 and Alpha8 were used.

I've never seen any Airtrace's although I haven't had a good look round for a while, where abouts are they located?

Yeah Northumberland were big Alpha 8 users...switched to WRTL for a spell and installed MRL6s (albeit a rare event) then reverted back to Thorn and used the Alpha 5 and the 2000 (Haltwhistle bypass springs to mind). It was 2002 or there abouts when the Vectra came into usage and took over. The 2600 was used as a replacement if any lantern failed, particularly in Tynedale, although I think the Delta is now the preferential choice now.

The Airtraces? Forget the road name but they are outside Queen Elizabeth High in Hexham. Retrofitted to the Eleco Aluminium hockeys which was interesting. I remember the days when they were Eleco mercury lanterns!

Don't know what the situ is in the rest of Northumberland, only that area!

All SON and a small amount of SOX. They have recently just completed a large column replacement programme for columns which failed structural testing. The only mercury I know of to exist is in the small medieval village of Blanchland where two MBF beta 79s (metal canopy) survive. All others have been changed to SON heritage lanterns. Durham were also big alpha 8 and 2000 users lots have now been replaced with ZX2s as part of the radio switching and RF switched thorn oracles are used for side roads. No mercury exists at all in Durham. The last in rural villages was removed in the early 2000's and replaced with ZX1s. Newcaslte is all arcs and thorn riveras and the odd libra.

Medway have started equipping the Sapphires on new installations with LED elements, they seem to be two densley packed squares of LED's aranged one infront of the other, with a cold white light output!! Makes the CFL and cosmo whites look almost yellow in comparison!!