Does anyone like old street lights?

[fan-of-fans]

My town has been replacing some street lights with LED units in the last 5 years or so. But we still have many, many high pressure sodium lights. What is interesting to me though is there are still a fair number of mercury vapor streetlights remaining in service.

Along one road I counted 3 or four. Some are Westinghouse Silverliners and there are some American Electrics too. I'd guess they date back to the mid 1960s or so. You just don't see this in most towns anymore!

Also some of the older subdivisions still have mercury vapor NEMA bucket type fixtures installed.

A lot of places seem to have entirely replaced everything with LED at once, but mine seems to only install LED for new stuff and replaces old fixtures only if they stop working. They were even still installing new high pressure sodium lights up until a year ago or so.

I do have a couple of street lights in my collection. I'd really like to have a house with enough yard to actually put some of these up to use as security lights, on a switch, and not bother the neighbors.

 

[petek]

Our city started replacing with new LED street lighting maybe 4 years ago and the job is almost complete now. This is the second year since our subdivision was upgraded. It was quite noticeable at first being as the new lights are more direct onto the street itself and there is no longer any "overflow" or light pollution onto our front yards and front of houses as there used to be so overall it seems darker in that regards. You really need to put on your front porch lights now other wise you can barely and in some cases not even see if there might be prowlers. Overall though I like it.

 

[qsd-dan]

I occasionally miss the old Walk/Don't Walk pedestrian signs that got replaced almost 30 years ago but that's just nostalgia.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Yes, nothing like meeting at the Corner of Walk and Don't Walk...!

-- Dave

 

[sgt10]

Gas lamps

You can still see a few gas lamps on the outside of townhomes
and brownstones in New York. They make for a very nice light (albeit not a lot of light).

 

[sudsmaster]

When I was a kid in small town New England, we lived across the street from a T intersection, and it had one street light. The old kind, incandescent, with a metal shade on top. I suppose the purpose of the shade was to keep the rain and snow off the bulb and wiring. I remember we kids used to enjoy hanging out under it on a summer evening. Eventually it got replaced (I think) by a war of the worlds type halogen light so the summer evening gatherings sort of petered out. Then we moved to a Big City.

 

[tolivac]

Yes,I am a light fan and have some streetlights in my collection-mercury.The transmitter plant replaced these with LED several years ago.And some other additions-dual lamp circular flourescent fixtures that were in the site bathrooms.Saved a few for posterity.My grandmothers kitchen used to have such ceiling lamps.Remember them them from when I was a kid.The plant bathrooms now have LED ceiling lamps-they do pretty well.

 

[kimball455]

Street Light catalogue

Here's the link to the 1936 GE street lighting catalog

Harry

Street lighting catalog, 1936-1937. : General Electric Company : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

307 p. : ill. ; 27 cm., trade catalog

archive.org

 

[viewsaver]

I've had a small collection going on 25 years now with a handful of Line Material Industries gumball fixtures from Milwaukee, one of which does duty nightly with a 50W mercury lamp. I also have some new, never installed LPS fixtures, a few incandescent radial wave and "admiral's hat" fixtures, and last but not least, a 100W mercury Line Material Ind. "Unistyle" and early 175W mercury G.E. M250 cobra-head fixture.

I've included a link to Joe Maurath's streetlighting page which is a great resource to the history and various models of streetlights over the years. I don't have any pictures handy of my little collection at the moment but I can definitely add some if anyone is interested.

Chris

Joe Maurath's Home Page / VintageStreetlights.Com

Joe Maurath Jr.'s website and vintage streetlight information archive

www.vintagestreetlights.com

 

[circlew]

While I don't collect them, I have an interest in them. I have a couple catalogs from Union Metal and Spring City, that I got in the 80's.

 

Our historical society has an old cast iron lamp post that was one of this town's streetlights that had been installed in the 1920's. It needs to be restored before we can use it. We also have two glass "acorn" globes that fit the post. If we restore the post for use in the yard, we probably will buy a new plastic globe of the same shape, so as to avoid breakage by vandals.

 

The town had replaced the cast iron posts with tall satin aluminum ones in the early to mid 1950's, with arms that had mercury vapor fixtures. The were in place until about three years ago, when new lamp posts with LED globe fixtures were installed. The look similar to the originals, and are finished in black.

 

Several years ago I thought about getting a couple of the Union Metal posts, 12' tall with "acorn" globes, to install by my driveway. The electric supply distributor quoted a price of several thousand dollars, so that ended that idea. I then tried to get the town to put them in as streetlights on this street, and was told everyone on the street would have to agree to pay for them - fat chance of that!

 

 

[justjunque]

I'm not up on types of street lights like some of you are.
I couldn't tell you what kind our town had when we first moved here. But, within the last couple of years, the town has been replacing them with LED.
Bottom line, they give off light, which is better than having no street lights, I guess. But I definitely preferred the warmer looking light that the previous type delivered.

Barry

 

[wayupnorth]

Many traffic lights around here were replaced with LED's. Only problem is with a big snowstorm, they do not give off any heat to melt the snow off so nobody knows which way to go. I wish there was more street lights around here.

 

[adam-aussie-vac]

I remember technology connections

Made an entire 30 minute video about this, and the danger of “but sometimes”

 

[davey7]

Chicago has a history of replacing the heads on the residential street lights - first in the 60's for more light and more recently with LED's. I love the new lights - not orange and better aim so no overspill up into my windows (I'm above them). In one neighborhood I lived in they replaced the old painted streetlights with spun aluminum poles with faux vintage style bracket lights - overlit in my book (I've met someone who thought Chicago's streetlighting was dark - ha!).

Gas lights were a 70's/early 80's condo conversion fad - some had to be removed since they hadn't gotten permission from Peoples Gas, but a few are still around, but most have gradually been replaced with LED inserts in my neighborhood (all of them near me were condo conversions by the same company.....).

 

[Ultramatic]

I have always been a fan of street furniture...

 

 

Especially street lamps.

 

Here is a link of street lamps in NYC and it's environs.

Street Lamps - Forgotten New York

From gaslights to LED lamps, New York City's streets have been artifically lit since the colonial era. In Street Lamps, FNY explores their various types.

forgotten-ny.com

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

And here is a very illuminating site...

Jeff's Streetlight Site Street Lighting Roads and Highways

Streetlight Site dedicated to street lighting trivia, street lights, lamp-posts, light pole standards, pendant lights, cobra heads, incandescent, mercury and sodium vapor luminaires, and more in photos and story.

www.streetlightsite.com

 

[michael]

We have a facebook group "old London Street lighting"... got some great photos of Londons lights of time gone by. Growing up in the 60's, our lighting was mainly sodium or mercury on concrete posts...