This thing has been up since December so I figured it was about time to grab a picture of it lol. AEL ATBS 20W 3000K with a DTL fail-off DSS photocell.
Yeah these have grown on me. I actually like them, though I miss the old cobraheads. I love the 3000K light these produce. It's just like a halogen lamp (a little whiter than incandescent) and not pinkish like a lot of warm white LEDs are. I'd say they look more like 3500K despite the 3000K rating. Perfect IMO. I also like that these have a share house side cut-off, so the light doesn't shine in my bedroom window, which is basically directly to the right of where I was parked when I took this picture, on the second floor. The old M-250R2 lit up my whole room in the spring and fall when I'd sleep with the windows open and the shade up a little. My neighbor's annoying 3x 23W CFL post top in their front yard still lights my room up though. I'd love to snip the wires inside that light one night lol.
BTW can you tell NGrid installed these poles by how our of plumb they are? My pole is leaning toward my house, next pole is leaning into the street, pole after that is actually pretty plumb. The two poles behind this pic are leaning away from the street. Then the poles cross the street on the curve and are pretty straight. Maybe they purposely leaned these away from the road on the curve since overtime the wires would pull them straight but these all have guy wires restraining the poles so they ain't going anywhere. And there's no explanation for the ones leaning way into the street.
They installed these poles spring 2004 I think. I don't remember the poles before they put the new ones up, since we just moved in the house in spring 2003 when I had turned 5. At that time I had no interest in lighting or line equipment. The reason they replaced the poles was because they added the primary on the right with the polymer insulators for a new neighborhood that was built around that time. Once you get to that third pole in the pic, the right-most primary turns right and the poles after that on my street are really ancient from like the 50s probably. Short thin dark brown poles with brown insulators. When they replaced the poles the city didn't bother transferring the street name signs so for about 12 years there were no street signs on my street until they finally went around installing new signs in the neighborhood.
I saw this yesterday, and got to see his collection too! I wish I was closer to you all than I am, cause I only got a chance to go to those areas once and it wasn't long and all of you (except mike) were all busy. I hope to be back, currently in Virgina right now after a long days travels. Thanks for showing the collection!
Mike is the only collector I've meet. Unfortunately with work, it was difficult to meet Ian but hopefully someday.
@mike, yeah Ngrid alway seems to have leaning poles. Even when they replace them, they still tend to install them leaning. Usually when we do an installation like this, we will replace both primary's and then cut away the old one once we transfer everything over.
@ Ian: It was nice to meet you and show you my lights. One of the few times my lights get any attention lol. Wish I was a better host though. I was still getting over a cold when you were here and got up early that day so I was tired but glad to hear you enjoyed your visit anyway. Yep you got to see this LED and you got to see an identical one up close and in-person right in my house lol.
I've been fortunate to meet a few collectors over the past several years. I've met with Joe Maurath Jr a few times, Joe from Ontario, Tony, Ian, Nick (nicksfans from Lighting-Gallery and I think here too), Brian (member Trafficlight1), Steve Zalimas (member slz), and Marco, a friend I met through my uncle (not a member of any lighting sites). Of that list I've met Ian, Brian, and Nick at my house and the rest I visited. Most are fairly quick visits but it's always nice to exchange "lighting talk" as I usually don't have anyone to share it with lol.
@ Tony: Yeah usually they replace everything too. It's possible they did run a new primary but I don't remember since I was so young and wasn't really interested at the time. Would make sense for them to use the same type of primary on both sides if they did run a new one though. All I remember is that the old pole was propped up on blocks at the base for a few months (while the phone company transferred their lines probably) and attached to the new pole with cross arm braces. NGrid uses wood braces for cross arms now but I think they still use steel brackets to hold the old pole to the new one until it's removed. I think the crooked pole thing goes back longer than NGrid since I've seem some really old poles here leaning quite a bit, but not as common as NGrid poles lol.
Here's a badly-leaning pole that's pre-mid-60s since it's got brown insulators. It's at a major intersection and it's leaning right into the road! Not sure if it's originally leaning like that or if it's happened over time since the pole is leaning in the direction of the weight from the lines. You can see the median the pole is installed in has all sorts of grass growing in front of the pole, suggesting the pole has gradually been leaning over, cracking up the concrete as it does. The pole is ancient so it's years of service are limited, either by scheduled maintenance or by nature taking it down. Hopefully the former... There's a lot of ancient poles on that stretch of road.
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BTW can you tell NGrid installed these poles by how our of plumb they are? My pole is leaning toward my house, next pole is leaning into the street, pole after that is actually pretty plumb. The two poles behind this pic are leaning away from the street. Then the poles cross the street on the curve and are pretty straight. Maybe they purposely leaned these away from the road on the curve since overtime the wires would pull them straight but these all have guy wires restraining the poles so they ain't going anywhere. And there's no explanation for the ones leaning way into the street.
They installed these poles spring 2004 I think. I don't remember the poles before they put the new ones up, since we just moved in the house in spring 2003 when I had turned 5. At that time I had no interest in lighting or line equipment. The reason they replaced the poles was because they added the primary on the right with the polymer insulators for a new neighborhood that was built around that time. Once you get to that third pole in the pic, the right-most primary turns right and the poles after that on my street are really ancient from like the 50s probably. Short thin dark brown poles with brown insulators. When they replaced the poles the city didn't bother transferring the street name signs so for about 12 years there were no street signs on my street until they finally went around installing new signs in the neighborhood.
@mike, yeah Ngrid alway seems to have leaning poles. Even when they replace them, they still tend to install them leaning. Usually when we do an installation like this, we will replace both primary's and then cut away the old one once we transfer everything over.
I've been fortunate to meet a few collectors over the past several years. I've met with Joe Maurath Jr a few times, Joe from Ontario, Tony, Ian, Nick (nicksfans from Lighting-Gallery and I think here too), Brian (member Trafficlight1), Steve Zalimas (member slz), and Marco, a friend I met through my uncle (not a member of any lighting sites). Of that list I've met Ian, Brian, and Nick at my house and the rest I visited. Most are fairly quick visits but it's always nice to exchange "lighting talk" as I usually don't have anyone to share it with lol.
@ Tony: Yeah usually they replace everything too. It's possible they did run a new primary but I don't remember since I was so young and wasn't really interested at the time. Would make sense for them to use the same type of primary on both sides if they did run a new one though. All I remember is that the old pole was propped up on blocks at the base for a few months (while the phone company transferred their lines probably) and attached to the new pole with cross arm braces. NGrid uses wood braces for cross arms now but I think they still use steel brackets to hold the old pole to the new one until it's removed. I think the crooked pole thing goes back longer than NGrid since I've seem some really old poles here leaning quite a bit, but not as common as NGrid poles lol.
Here's a badly-leaning pole that's pre-mid-60s since it's got brown insulators. It's at a major intersection and it's leaning right into the road! Not sure if it's originally leaning like that or if it's happened over time since the pole is leaning in the direction of the weight from the lines. You can see the median the pole is installed in has all sorts of grass growing in front of the pole, suggesting the pole has gradually been leaning over, cracking up the concrete as it does. The pole is ancient so it's years of service are limited, either by scheduled maintenance or by nature taking it down. Hopefully the former... There's a lot of ancient poles on that stretch of road.