Yeah, most probably. The Trafficvisions were only installed about 3 years ago when the entire section of the M25 was widened, so it's very likely that they're fitted with dimming technology. Not sure about the Urbises, but I definitely think the Trafficvisions are recent enough to have dimming technology employed.Perhaps the lanterns you saw had been dimmed for overnight use. There again, the wattage used may have been too low for the height of the columns and that is the problem with SON, you have to have incredibly high-wattage lanterns to light a wide road effectively from a tall column when a 180w SOX lantern could do it better for less power! However the Government has blacklisted SOX it seems so we are stuck with it for now although MH is starting to be used on a couple of trunk roads now so maybe they will start to use them on motorways soon.
Yeah, I certainly agree that 180w SOX is far better than 250-500w SON in terms of energy and light output - despite its poor colour rendition, it seems far better value for money to me! But does colour rendition really matter on motorways? I don't think so, but highway authorities and the government (if it's true that they have blacklisted SOX, or if it's just highway authorities being stingy) seem to think otherwise! Yes, MH looks great on motorways - as Tony said when we were discussing the new Iridiums at M2 J7, a lot of A-roads in Kent seem to be having their SOX and SON overhauled with MH, so it looks like Kent might be at the forefront of new metal halide motorway technology!
Sounds as if your area was never really that keen on SOX in the first place - it seems to me they only used it where SON wasn't really necessary. Lytham St Annes sounds like a real exception if it's using a lot of Beta 5s - just a shame they or other SOX lanterns are not been installed anymore, but at least the 2600 is being used instead of a certain other lantern! Even the 2600 could easily be fitted with SOX, but councils are so much into this "white light" mentality now, they can't seem to even do simple in-house conversions any more!Well to be fair SOX was never the most popular light source in my area anyway. It tended to be used mostly for intermediate roads or main rural roads. Some areas used it more than others. White light sources were favoured up until the 1980s and then although a lot of SOX was installed in that decade, a lot more SON was, especially towards the end of the 80s. In the 90s very little new SOX was installed and in this decade absolutely none, with the rare exception of the odd Beta 5 casual in Lytham St. Annes around 2000-2002. Even there SON 2600s are used as casuals now.
There's actually three SOX lanterns there - two Metro-Vick SO50s on sleeved concretes and then the Revo. There are also actually more of those ornate columns all along the prom with fancy modern lanterns installed, the make and model of which I can't place. You are very right though - they don't suit the columns at all! Unfortunately, many of the others look to have been replaced with various SON lanterns on modern columns over time, in which case you're probably right again! As for the Revo not being the original lantern, that could be possible, but I'm really not sure! Oh well, at least the one with the Revo lantern still survives and some of the others are still standing, in one form or another!I remember DorsetWay telling how all the SOX was being replaced in Weymouth although I seem to recall he was happy about it Those two old SOX lanterns on Weymouth Prom are very interesting though and how on earth they've managed to survive so long when even some of the nearby SON lanterns are quite old is beyond me! That Silvergold especially is a real museum-piece! I really like the ornate column it's on and maybe that's been the lanterns saviour because I can't really imagine a modern lantern (heritage or not) suiting that column can you? I expect at one time, long, long ago all the columns along the Prom were of the same design and the Silvergold probably isn't even the original lantern for it!
Yeah, Liverpool really seems to be the haven for GEC Bricks, doesn't it? Even though the Brick population has declined heavily in recent years, it still seems to be very common, alongside the MA60.We used to have GEC Bricks at J32 of the M6 but they've been gone since about 1988 when they were replaced by MRL6s. They are a quite rare sight for me these days although the last time I saw several Bricks was in Liverpool where there are still many around the city on CU columns with those infamous brackets they were fond of there in the 70s and 80s.
By the way, I also some Bricks lighting a roundabout near Yeovil on the way to and from Weymouth, which was very surprising! But Yeovil is Somerset, which I think still uses a lot of SOX anyway. There were also a couple of roundabouts near Weymouth lit with MA50s, which was unusual as Weymouth is almost completely SON now. I also saw a lone MA60 amongst some MRL6s on another roundabout - the MRL6s clearly replaced the MA60s, and perhaps the remaining one was brand new at the time and so was left. Or it could even be possible that the MA60 was used as a casual replacement for an MRL6 - that's happened in Liverpool before now, as we've all seen!
Yeah, you're probably right. One school in my area uses Beta 5s on proper columns to light its main drive, but it's the only one in my area which seems to do it. A Comet store in Barking also uses two XGS104s as security lights. My local Sainsbury's uses a Philips MI lantern as a security light, but it could be an MI57 which runs SON. Whatever it is, though, it's been missing its bowl for ages and has now been replaced with an SON floodlight. Just goes to show you that SOX still does have some ground in the streetlighting market as cheap security lighting!I agree it seems strange but there are quite a few businesses, schools and even houses that have either these Whitecroft Mistral Walls or Beta 2/5s wall-mounted as security lights in my area. I suppose people like them for the low cost of the power consumption although I agree they're not much use if you have CCTV!
This government grant does sound a bit wasteful, but I suppose while Blackpool had the chance, they may well have made the most of the opportunity (with such a tight-fisted government these days, grant isn't a word you hear of much anymore!Well I think CFL is used in alleys etc to help people feel safer in back alleys at night although if you really want to feel safe then you shouldn't go down them in the first place! Blackpool never used Beta 5s or any other Group B SOX lantern, the previous alleyway lanterns were usually SRL8s running SON and this is still the case in many parts of town. One part of town has Urbis Albanys on 4m columns running SON at close intervals down it's alleyways although I have no real idea why. These Albanys actually replaced some short-lived CFL Irises which seems like something of a backward-step not to mention a waste of money as the Irises were on new 6m columns which got taken down as the Albanys were installed on brand-new columns again (although it seems the reason is because Blackpool Council got given a Government grant to give the area concerned an 'upgrade'). The actual roads in that area got new fancy MH lighting with lanterns that look like genies lamps! They look really strange and out-of-place as all the houses there are old terraced houses
). It does seem strange how Albanys were used though, as they are quite a bit older than Irises, and especially how the Albanys ran SON while the Irises ran CFL. But if the council knew the grant was coming, why install the Irises in the first place? I can well imagine they looked out of place too!
Why light an alleyway like this at all? It doesn't look as if it's ever used! 
At least those Bricks on the tall columns are still there, the GEC Brick is becoming an endangered species though. Even in Liverpool it's numbers are depleting fast!