Off Station Road, Newtown, Chester, Cheshire With thanks to LeoLampposts for discovering these Survivors. Still extant in large numbers under the canopies of Chester Railway Station's platforms are GEC 'Clearspace' Z8290s, dating from the late 1950s or early 1960s, and designed for running two 5 ft (1500 mm) 80 Watt MCF/U (linear fluorescent) lamps (although these examples may have been modernised internally to accommodate newer fluorescent or LED lamp types now). An unusual feature of these lanterns is that they were offered with the option of having the station's name emblazoned on the sides of the bowls; thus, giving the lanterns the double purpose of not only providing illumination to the platforms, but also to allow passengers on board trains to be able to look out of the windows (back in the days when coaching stock was built to allow every seat to have a window view!), and read the illuminated station names after nightfall.
As the lanterns are attached to modern cable trunking systems, they have probably been retained as a heritage feature through various refurbishment and modernisation schemes at the station over the years.
The individual letters are applied directly to the bowls, rather than being screen printed onto them.
Numerous Z8290s continue into the distance down the platform.
I wonder if anyone ever considered using these lanterns at the famously very long-named Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch station on the Isle of Anglesey - not only would GEC have had to have produced a special 8 ft version of the Z8290; the poor individual tasked with applying the letters would probably have handed in their notice after the first ten characters!
Interestingly, the fixing plate for a long-removed wall bracket was visible through the platform canopy glazing near this Z8290.
Zooming out reveals the small gathering area that whatever the long-removed wall-mounted light would have lit.
Away from the station, this rather battered and rusty 5 m tubular steel column supports two back-to-back mounted Thorn Precincts.
The right-hand fitting is hanging slightly loosely from its central fixing block.
A Royce Thompson P6 photocell has been attached to the side of this fitting to provide automatic control to both.
With the design of the Precinct not adapting well to photocell provision, I can see why the cell was mounted where it was, and why a 20 mm threaded cell was required instead of the more conventional NEMA type. Even with this type of photocell employed, space for the internal wiring must have been extremely tight.
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