Strange thing that is - everything about it says it was cheap to produce - I mean, there's very little to it and it's literally bolted on top of a rough wooden post... I guess these are maybe in what would have been East Germany? I'll bet it's quite effective tho!

Seen these on LG before, nice old things, guessing the ballast is in the bottom housing. In this state you can just imagine it softly glowing with an old dim and green MBF lamp!

This fixture is a so-called "Gleisfeldleuchte" (track field light), which is the technically correct designation.
The term ‘mushroom light’ is also established, but this is only colloquial. The housing of this fixture is made of cast aluminium.
The lower part with the mounting flange for attachment to the pole has an external thread onto which the upper part (also made of cast aluminium) is screwed.


Source: NARVA Entladungslampenpraxis 1970

There were originally only two variants:

- 250W mercury vapour lamp

- 400W mercury vapour lamp

A third variant was added around the beginning of the seventies:

- 1000W mercury vapour lamp

The variant with 1000W MV lamp was produced with a two-part ballast in the first years of production.
These two ballasts were arranged one above the other and had windings made of aluminium.







The older design can be easily recognised by the longer housing of the fixture.
The weight of this fixture varies between 16 kg and 27 kg depending on the configuration.


Source: Deutsche Reichsbahn DV 954

In the last years of the GDR (eighties), these fixtures were also produced for SON lamps.