Is there any Mercury lighting left???

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scott125
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by scott125 »

Just to the east of Uddingston railway station on a footpath there lGSooks like mercury .GSV does not cover that path
M56phil
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by M56phil »

Well, if you want some Mercury - I've found some AND it's working.

Try - Yew Tree Lane - Appleton Thorn, near Warrington. I've never driven down this road, but passed it and there are I think 3 Mercury concrete oldies.

Warrington used to be awash with Mercury even up until 3/4s ago but has had a massive replacement programme firstly with compact fluorescent and then LED. These 3 mercurys have been missed - but it could be a private road, I don't know. Regardless, if you want to see them- best get there quick as they could be replaced. Thanks.
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Focus 2
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Focus 2 »

Saw quite a lot of mercury lighting when on the coach in Benidorm last month when it was still dark.

I was surprised to see much of it in Tynemouth station too. This historic station, refurbished around 20-30 years ago must use the last generation of mercury lamps. Now part of the Metro network.
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trencheel303
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by trencheel303 »

If this thread has taught us anything it's that there is still mercury lighting if you know where to look, or get very lucky (a la when I spied a peculiar mercury burning alpha three at the side of the motorway).

We could do with turning the beginning of the thread into a glossary that is updated with known mercury installations ... it depends how much people would want that. I'd be happy to maintain such a thing, keeping this as the comment thread and keeping a "no replies" thread purely for the information.
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Gareth W »

Long time lurker.

Hi I live on Rowner estate in Gosport.

There's a right old mix of stuff around here. Within 100yds of my door we have SOX, SON, Metal Halide, nasty LEDs, and new CFTs replacing SON and Halides in the side roads. There's also wonder of wonders the odd Mercury post-top on concrete columns that look as though they date back to when the estate was built in the sixties.

Most of the Mercury are found on pathways on open spaces between the courtyards or odd out of the way nooks where they've been overlooked. But you can see a couple, inc a day burner if you travel south on Grange Lane straight ahead over the berm at the junction with
Howe Road.

There are also at least two Mercury post-tops in the main car park at Brune Park school amongst the SONs and Halides.

It also looks as though there is the odd Mercury light in the grounds of HMS Sultan but it's difficult to get close enough to be totally sure.
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

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scott125 wrote:
trencheel303 wrote:
RJDG14 wrote:For those who remember, did most merucry lights look white or blue to the naked eye? The ones I saw in Swindon a short while back and the few in Whitby are almost white, maybe with a slight tinge in the right lighting, but the one near Church Stretton looked a light blue (for the few seconds that I was driven past it).
It depends. The variances are nowhere near as wide as metal halide - which can actually be moderately distracting when it is piecemeal - but there are variances nonetheless.

When I stopped in at Tebay services recently, I had to do a double take when I clocked numerous Alpha Threes in the car park. The lamps were a very neutral white colour, with an added tinge of warm colour tone. I thought for a minute that they might be MH, but then found that an unlikely scenario as lumen levels weren't high enough for the 400W suggested by the lamp size. It's entirely plausible that they were either recent relamps or just good quality -- regardless I'm confident they were mercury... you'll have to trust my deduction as I am not in the habit of carrying around a spectrometer!

From my experience on the collection side of things, most mercury lamps tend to look a little "cooler" in colour, however Thorn/GE Kolorlux lamps do exhibit this warmish glow, as they have a very thick and effective phosphor that turns the lamp a deep red when initially struck, and that red tone never totally leaves even once fully run up, at least while the lamps are fresh. I also have a 100W /C Phosphor Westinghouse lamp from the USA that has similarly warm tones. However, cheaper lamps with a poorer phosphor covering have little in the way of warm tones and can even take on a slightly daylight blue hue like clear lamps.

As a generalisation, I'd describe coated mercury lamps to have a cool neutral white colour with a slightly grimy or dirty feel to it, largely thanks to the strong green mercury line. I've noticed a similar effect on cheap white halophosphor fluorescent lamps, some of which have a truly yucky appearance. As described above better quality lamps feel less like this although age takes its toll on all lamps. CLEAR lamps are a sight to behold especially for us Brits who never really embraced them. When I first laid eyes on a [lit] clear mercury lamp I was quite surprised to see how relatively pure a white it is. It's not quite true white, more like an icy light blue-grey colour.. but far more white than its low colour rendering suggests - it's quite bizarre seeing a generally white light render skin as green and strong reds as a dull brown, and although similar to the standard "daylight" colour, the unique spectrum of mercury make them truly unique lamps to look at. Most cameras lie and render it as a green or blue colour and conversely not many people colour-correct their photographs.

scott125 wrote:Theres a Whiskey distillery in North Glasgow (Bowmore?) that i see from railway line out of Queen St , looks like it has old mercury !
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.88237 ... 6656?hl=en
Can't decide what the lanterns are but you could well be right. Would be a first in Glasgow for me - as you and me both know anything pre-SOX appears to be incandescent!
Ive seen these at night , very old metal colunms , they looked mercury ! Not sure if they still are in service . Not a public road or anything maybe 1960s lights.[/quote

I passed thesein darkness and im sure these are mercury.
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MotorwayGuy
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by MotorwayGuy »

There's still a few dotted around in Dartford, but most have been replaced with Phosco LED fixtures very recently. There's a lone working example HERE, and there's another possible one HERE, although this was replaced by the column opposite quite a few years ago and probably doesn't work anymore.
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Focus 2
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Focus 2 »

These were spotted on the hotel balcony in Finestrat on the outskirts of Benidorm last week.
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Gareth
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Gareth »

It's it's quite common to find mercury in various parts of Europe - especially the countries which shunned SOX (i.e. most of them).
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

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Gareth wrote:It's it's quite common to find mercury in various parts of Europe - especially the countries which shunned SOX (i.e. most of them).
What Countries used SOX ?
Holland ?
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Gareth »

Holland, Belgium & Luxembourg were heavy users like the UK (and Ireland, I presume).

Some eastern & Scandinavian countries used them sparingly, mostly on motorways. They were very rare in continental Western Europe outside of the low countries.

Very rare outside of Europe too. Don't think Hong Kong ever used them despite following the UK quite closely in respects to infrastructure.

San Jose was one of the very few USA cities to use SOX though they're phasing them out. Only Americans could confuse SOX streetlights and traffic lights...


http://www.mercurynews.com/2009/02/06/n ... ed-yellow/
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Truvelo »

That's a shame because the SOX lanterns in America are really distinctive. I have no plans to visit San Jose again in the near future so that's the last I'll see of them. There were some in Boston which have also gone.

Some still remain in Arizona and these are mounted on some fantastic looking columns.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@32.83528 ... 312!8i6656
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Worcestershire Wolf »

I saw this in Penally in South Pembrokeshire recently:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.66289 ... 312!8i6656

It looks like a traditional old Pembrokeshire mercury lamp, but now appears to be lighting up private property rather than the adjacent public road, so not sure if this was bought by the private owners and installed thee or if was installed by the council.
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Divine »

Barnsley council have left this Alpha 3 running Mercury in crow edge. It functions fine and is in decent nick.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.53949 ... 6656?hl=en
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Chris5156
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

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Divine wrote:Barnsley council have left this Alpha 3 running Mercury in crow edge. It functions fine and is in decent nick.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.53949 ... 6656?hl=en
That looks very much like it's on private property and very likely has nothing to do with the council.
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Divine »

Chris5156 wrote:
Divine wrote:Barnsley council have left this Alpha 3 running Mercury in crow edge. It functions fine and is in decent nick.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.53949 ... 6656?hl=en
That looks very much like it's on private property and very likely has nothing to do with the council.
Perhaps, but I've seen a bus go up there a few times and I believe the front is maintained by Barnsley Council. The gate is further up I believe.
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trencheel303
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by trencheel303 »

Gareth wrote:It's it's quite common to find mercury in various parts of Europe - especially the countries which shunned SOX (i.e. most of them).
I found this in Italy. It was only ever there in small pockets but it was relatively well maintained and more common than here. I suspect it helps that the warmer European countries seem to prefer a cooler colour temperature anyway.
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Raggit_Rich »

Hiked through Crawley Down (Sussex) on Sunday & spotted what suspiciously looked like a mercury street light on Sandy Lane. Very close to the funeral directors building (a bit ironic really) given mercury is dying out.
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by DaveGoddard »

Raggit_Rich wrote:Hiked through Crawley Down (Sussex) on Sunday & spotted what suspiciously looked like a mercury street light on Sandy Lane. Very close to the funeral directors building (a bit ironic really) given mercury is dying out.
Could this be the one you mean? https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.12522 ... 6656?hl=en

(Look further along there at Sussex Classics too, a big variety of cars on display there!)
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Re: Is there any Mercury lighting left???

Post by Raggit_Rich »

DaveGoddard wrote:
Raggit_Rich wrote:Hiked through Crawley Down (Sussex) on Sunday & spotted what suspiciously looked like a mercury street light on Sandy Lane. Very close to the funeral directors building (a bit ironic really) given mercury is dying out.
Could this be the one you mean? https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.12522 ... 6656?hl=en

(Look further along there at Sussex Classics too, a big variety of cars on display there!)
Aye 'tis that one. Pretty sure it's mercury. Used to be one like that in the village I grew up in Surrey (Outwood) but was replaced along with the other SOX's about 3/4 years ago.
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