SOX lighting "dying" on motorways-multiple areas in network.

[M56phil]

I know I posted a thread on the M53 about this....swathes of SOX lighting that about 80% or more isnt working.

M53 J9-J10 hardly lit.
M62 East of Junction 9-about 80% of the SOX are dead-with the odd one working or flickering.
M62 West of junction 7. Whole stretch is effectively "dead".

can anyone tell me where else SOX lighting is used on the motorway network and its current status?

I know around J3 of the M5 they have sox and essex bit of the M25?

Would love to know!

[Truvelo]

Essex bit of the M25 is also disappearing. There's widening work taking place between the M11 and A12 but the SOX lighting, including sections of gear-in-shoe bricks, still stands although new columns have gone up on the verges.

[WHBM]

I've driven down the M1 Rugby to the M25 on a couple of evenings recently, and the lighting is now appalling. Significant sections in the dark, as well as many individual units out, along the whole length. It's starting to look like something from the Third World. Thought the whole idea of the current maintenance schemes was to have targets that prevented this sort of parsimony and cost-cutting ignorance of failures.

[Truvelo]

Perhaps these sections of SOX are due to be replaced and so there's little point in wasting time and money getting them working again if they are life expired?

[True Yorkie]

The M60 round by the Trafford Centre is SOX lit, and pretty much all of it is working

[traffic-light-man]

M62 West of junction 7. Whole stretch is effectively "dead".

It's not dead, it just needs resuscitating every now and again .

Its just very tempramental. The entire J5-J6 section, all of Tarbock Island and the A5300/M57 is group switched. I'm also quite certain they're still timeswitched, but I'm not sure.

[sheffieldposh]

can anyone tell me where else SOX lighting is used on the motorway network and its current status?

Would love to know!

M67( Hyde By Pass ) junction 1-3 all working

[B4133]

M69 pretty much still working. A1(M) at Adwick, Doncaster still 40% lit by SOX but sadly being phased out towards SON which 60% of the A1(M) at junction 38. Between junctions 38 and what-i-suspect-shall-be junction 39 at Barnsdale is still lit by SOX.

The A27 near to Patcham is still lit by SOX im not 100% certain that it still works though.

[Truvelo]

M69 pretty much still working.

You may have spotted one column just to the north of the M6 which has shorter brackets and a pair of ZX3's.

[B4133]

M69 pretty much still working.

You may have spotted one column just to the north of the M6 which has shorter brackets and a pair of ZX3's.

I think i might have seen that.

[Rojojnr]

Essex bit of the M25 is also disappearing. There's widening work taking place between the M11 and A12 but the SOX lighting, including sections of gear-in-shoe bricks, still stands although new columns have gone up on the verges.

Oh, that's a shame! I was always admiring how long those MA60s and Bricks had lasted! Still, at least it's all being replaced for a good reason and not just for the sake of it! I suppose all the SOX is reaching the end of its life, so I suppose it's on borrowed time anyway!

You've all forgotten those classic GEC Bricks at the M3/M25 junction that Sotonsteve has documented very well on his website. I drove past them at night in October on the way back from a fieldtrip to Weymouth and they were all pretty much in good working order! I remember one or two outages, but apart from that, they were all absolutely fine! I didn't notice any SON casual replacements either, which is great, although I think there are a few MA60s among them! But MA60s I'm not complaining about!

[haymansafc]

I know I posted a thread on the M53 about this....swathes of SOX lighting that about 80% or more isnt working.

M53 J9-J10 hardly lit.

That's being polite to it, Phil! The last time I passed though there in the dark, I only counted four lanterns that actually worked - and one of those was flashing/failing.

These MA's have been failing for a considerable number of years now and were supposed to be replaced when the Urbis ZX's were retrofitted on shortened brackets nearby several years ago. I recall an article in the local paper about it as there was nighttime closures planned for the work. The HA said that they were already beyond their life expectancy and were costing a considerable amount of maintain (what 'maintenance' they were talking about though, I have no idea...). However, this was 'forgotten' about (unsurprisingly...) and therefore, this odd section of very poorly and mostly dead MA's remain to this day with no clear signs of when they'll be replaced.

For the last fifteen years or so they've been going out, lantern by lantern. I don't think I've seen two consecutive pairs working for five, maybe six years... One lantern per column has always been out or failing. A lot of the survivors have gone since the roadworks began though, which I find odd.

As much as I love SOX and the Phillips MA lantern, I'll concede that this particular set is certainly past it's best.

On a slightly different note, have you already noticed that three of the new Urbis Sapphires between junctions 7 and 8 alone are already out?

[M56phil]

already lights out on J7-J8? The Urbis Sapphires? thats crazy!

I know 2 of the slip road lamps (northbound) are retro fitted old ones-they do blend in quite well though!.

The entire stock of lighting from J8-J10 need replacing. The MA60s south of J9 are a joke, I was amazed these werent retrofitted (as in the lamps from J5-J9) earlier.

They must be the worst collection of lighting on the entire network.

Urbis Sapphire for the 53' please!!!!!

[nick217]

M69 pretty much still working.

You may have spotted one column just to the north of the M6 which has shorter brackets and a pair of ZX3's.

Bad Bad news guys but i doubt these have long left as a huge section is now unlit and is now time to be renewed!

And i know of those zx3's right at end of the junction heading hinckley direction!

[nick217]

Also the slip road heading to the A46 from the M6 has only 1 in 3 lanterns working some streaches its one in 6!

[Truvelo]

I noticed a few months ago new columns going up on the A46 link road at J3. Before the lighting on the M6 was replaced a couple of years ago this entire junction was lit by SOX.

[sotonsteve]

Lots of Highways Agency street lighting seems to have been neglected, regardless of age. I remember going on the A2 near Dartford back in 2008 and I estimate that only a quarter to a third of lighting was working.

Down in Portsmouth, there were or still are significant failures on the Highways Agency section of the M275, with lots of lamps failed, and as soon as you pass into the section maintained on behalf of Portsmouth City Council the standard of maintenance suddenly improves.

[Patrick Harper]

To see SOX disappear (mainly from motorways) in favour of 'pinky amber' SON lighting, is a little sad. Still, there are plenty of places where SOX is still active, like the north circular bit of the M25. It's not just the orange glow that I like about SOX lighting; some columns and lantern combinations (like the lighting on the NC bit of M25!!), look stunning (I might be exaggerating). But, it's going to cost far too much for the Highways Agency to remove all SOX lighting. Anyway, the dream can still be saved at the very start and end of the M45 once it becomes 'a heritage motorway'. Mercury could be there too.

[Gram587]

What on earth is a 'heritage motorway'? Like a grade I listed motorway or something?

I don't think mercury was ever used on motorways although somebody on here may prove me wrong...

[Jeni]

M5 J4A-5 and a little bit through J4 still has SOX