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York: the ever-present GEC Z5590 lantern Just a collage highlighting a fraction of the vast number of this lantern which is still to be found on York's streets - quite amazing, really, in this day and age! Most of these seemed to be running SON, though I don't doubt they were all mercury originally.

York: the ever-present GEC Z5590 lantern

Just a collage highlighting a fraction of the vast number of this lantern which is still to be found on York's streets - quite amazing, really, in this day and age! Most of these seemed to be running SON, though I don't doubt they were all mercury originally.

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File information
Filename:YK6.jpg
Album name:LAllenLighting / Sightings out and about
Manufacturer:GEC
Type/Model:Z5590
Wattage:70w
Date manufactured:1980s
Filesize:697 KiB
Date added:25 Sep, 2026
Dimensions:1644 x 1332 pixels
Displayed:25 times
URL:http://80.229.24.59:9232/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=25658
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Comment 1 to 10 of 10
Page: 1

Beta 5   [25 Sep, 2026 at 09:31 PM]
Seen several of these myself Smile Indeed many did used to be mercury and seem to have had SON lamps stuck in them over the last few years as the MBF lamps gradually fail. I somewhat doubt they have had a ballast change though so the mercury chokes likely have to suck it up and run SON instead!
Flurofan96   [26 Sep, 2026 at 09:27 AM]
Seems like York is being sensible about preserving their streetlighting unlike other places/rest of the country just relentlessly ripping out for LED
AgentHalogen_87   [26 Sep, 2026 at 09:59 AM]
They could be running 70W SON-I, they seem to run quite happily on 80W merc chokes
AngryHorse   [26 Sep, 2026 at 11:39 AM]
Really unusual for me to see one of these in SON Surprised
Ash   [29 Sep, 2026 at 02:28 AM]
Oriignally it looked weird. As kid i recall seeing more and more mercury classics being converted to 70W SON-I and while it looked unusual and sometimes out of place it didnt look bad
AngryHorse   [29 Sep, 2026 at 10:10 AM]
We had this exact lantern in our street when I grew up, I think if not for the late 70s oil crisis, they could have been converted from mercury to SON-E?, but in 1980 they were removed for Beta 5s Cool
Ash   [29 Sep, 2026 at 08:05 PM]
The low power SON's are from the early 80s, back in 1980 the smallest SON out there could be maybe 150W... So it was either that or maybe converting them to lower power mercs like from 80W to 50W, which would work but probably was considered too dim
AngryHorse   [30 Sep, 2026 at 08:33 AM]
A 70 watt SON-E first appeared in the 1977 Thorn catalogue Cool, but I suppose going from 80 watt to 70 watt wasn't much of an energy saving at the time?, when street lighting companies here could affectively halve the power draw with SOX?
Flurofan96   [30 Sep, 2026 at 01:21 PM]
Not only that but another factor is that they probs fancied the orange glow of the SON-E lamp as they thought 'very much like firelight'
AngryHorse   [30 Sep, 2026 at 08:51 PM]
These look really good with SON in though Cool, I'd love to see this at night Wink

Comment 1 to 10 of 10
Page: 1

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