The Lamp Room

When I was a kid, we had a load of floodlights in my local swimming pool. Very unusual - they were twin lamp and the floods themselves were massive with remote gear boxes. On the left hand lamp holder was a SON-T clear tube, and on the right hand lamp holder was another clear tubular lamp - looked exactly like a SON tube in terms of tubular and clear except this one produced light that was a lovely cool white with a blue-ish tint to it. Possibly 250 or 400w sort of size. I think the idea was that they could alter the colour temp of the room.

Anyone have any suggestions what those clear, tubular silver-blue output colour lamps might have been? - we're talking 1980's-1990's era so not too long ago. I'd be interested to know what they might have been running. Any thoughts appreciated. I assumed all mbfu lamps were elliptical and white/Phosphor coated but these definitely were clear tubes yet kicked out a silver-blue-ish light like mbfu.

MBU?

Could also be Philips 80s style HPIs, this twin set up was also used in Rhyl Sun Center, SON/Halide mix, think the floods were Osrams?

Cheers guys - Angry Horse - the Sun Centre in Rhyl is exactly the place I am referring to. Do you reckon it was Halide in those floods or HPI? - I remember the not-SON lamp in those fittings had a nice silver-blue tint to them. I'm also wondering what wattage they were - 250's or 400's. Tricky to say as they were over 20ft up the columns and my last memory of them is from at least 20 years ago!.

They demolished the place a couple of years back in the latest act of vandalism against north Wales!

Definitely, the floods were Philips HNF 001/4s, these were remotely geared for twin 400watt SON lamps, so I guess whoever did the install would have mixed the colours using a HPI, you can see them still on the second pillar, (by the skip), in this photo of its sad destruction

P.s, I’m totally with you on this ‘act of vandalism’ in North Wales!, I also spent many happy hours in here as a kid, but what made it more heart breaking for me, I remember it being built in the summer of 1980!, I was gutted when I found out they had torn it down!

Do you also remember the globe fittings along the front window, all fitted with SL lamps!, most of the weather packs I’d guess were Philips too.

Why did they close it? Lack of customers? Been a while since I was in Rhyl and it was a pretty grim place, not somewhere where I would choose to holiday!
Pretty much every single swimming bath, sports centre and water park I visited at a child in the early 90's was lit by SON.

It was reported as being ‘dilapidated’ in one Welsh paper!, but it was far from that!, apparently they re-piped all the plant room with new stainless steel fittings and pump work no long before they closed it!
As for Rhyl itself, it was given a facelift last time I was there!

Thanks for the identification re those floods - thanks to you ID-ing the model I've actually found the catalogue for them and confirmed what they are designed to run as per the suggestions. I appreciate it. I live within 6 miles of that site and grew up there. Sun centre was a regular haunt. There's a long story to the closure of that place which I'd be happy to discuss outside of a (relatively) public forum but it was not (as usual) what the press presented. The thing that replaced it was a waste of money that looks like an industrial storage unit. I was unable to save those floods sadly despite trying and when they tore the place down I was also working away which made it nigh on impossible. Some you win and some you lose I guess!. One day I'll get one of those floods and reproduce what was in the sun centre.

I've attached a picture of the catalogue page of them

Took me a while to find them!, I originally miss identified them as Osram, (they also made a twin HID flood), and this is the one I remember, but going through the catalogues the Osram one are more like a hazardous version, and quite bulky!

That was a real shame that they weren’t removed before demolition!, as they would have been mint condition being inside all their lives!
So what was the full story of its closure?, all sounds a bit sinister?

Not been in SC2 yet, but I bet it’s not as well designed as the original?