Urbis ZX3

The Urbis ZX range is widely regarded by collectors as being the best range Urbis ever offered. Featuring pleasing lines, and a massive range of options including bowls and 4 standard canopy colours (unless the customer specified a specific colour) the lantern proved to be an instant hit. The only thing that really lets them down is the plastic hinges, and in some cases the ignitors like to ignite (pun intended) sending the whole lantern up in flames. Many examples still exist today, proving that simplicity is sometimes better.

The lantern shown here came from a huge installation along Manor way, in Dudley. Around 200 of these existed, and as a kid, my eyes were always drawn to them, probably because of the ridiculously oversized deep bowl. Come March 2021, I knew their days were numbered, as many lamps had failed and were just left, where normally a dead lamp would be replaced within 24 hours. Eventually I found I was correct, as Digistreets began to replace them en-masse. I phoned my contact, and the results are what you see here.

The lantern dates from 1992, and is even signed and dated by the person who installed it. Despite being 29 years old, overall is in immaculate condition, just showing how criminal this LED replacement scheme really has been. Somehow, the hinge was still intact, hence when I open the canopy its only partial instead of being all the way. the years of heat has killed the lamp holder twist lock mechanism, so a new one was duly fitted, and thats all the lantern needed to bring it back to perfect condition once more. One odd feature in the lantern is the safeclip fuse carrier, but seeing as these are on double brackets, and a very fast piece of road, I assume they were fitted to speed up isolation and service.

The canopy only needed a quick clean, and then a good polish with car bumper shine, meanwhile the metallic grey underside received a good polish with brasso, as did the bowl. Firing it up, the lamp immediately sprang into life and was at full brightness within 2 minutes, again raising the question, where was the need to replace it? Still, I'm really pleased to finally have one of these lanterns.