Vertically mounted Alpha 3's!

[FrontSideBus]

Was on a train heading out of Manchester Picadilly today and I noticed several of these Thorn Alpha 3's mounted vertically on columns post top style!
I never managed to get a photo as I was on a speeding train but I had a look on Google Streetview and you can see a couple of them:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/G8DtY5Hn6H8cNvCV8

What the actual fuck?

[Andy]

That really is bizarre!
I even lived a few streets from there back in the late 1990s but never noticed them.

[AgentHalogen_87]

What on earth were they trying to achieve with that? Unless there was some huge statue that's been removed they can't have been very useful

[FrontSideBus]

I doubt it in a train maintenance depot lol.

[Ash]

I can imagine for a yard of this size somebody came up with a desire to put them on high incline (45deg) brackets. Then they figured that they dont have any, but how much will it matter if they put the lanterns like this ?