Phosco P152 before restoration.

5 years ago, I had completed a very complicated restoration for someone, and this is what i had in return, hands down the most incomplete and battered lantern I've ever had in my life. Missing the gear cover, lamp support and original gear, its knackered bowl and broken hinge further adding to its problems, it just ended up being stored outdoors rotting away.

Upon hearing a NOS bowl had been found for it, I decided to undertake the extremely difficult restoration. It ended up being converted to a gearless lantern, a new lamp support was fabricated, the hinge repaired, and the photocell hole filled in, before a complete respray to freshen the whole lantern up.

The lantern shown here is as it was when I opened it up and removed the gear tray, in readiness for its conversion that would be undertaken 5 years later. One reason i converted it is due to the fact this isn't the correct gear, I believe it would originally have been a large leak transformer and PCB filled capacitor. With the reflector plate missing, it just made sense to me to convert it to gear less, a move that has seen the lantern restore incredibly well.