Nice Find the HPS was either retrofitted or renal lasted since they never were offered in HPS

Also it looks to be remote ballast...at those days they did offer empty shelled cobraheads to replace clamshells

I wonder if they used a retrofit lamp or if they replaced the remote ballast.

Maybe they even added a ballast in the M-400 when they retrofitted it to HPS and bypassed the remote merc ballast.

i'm not sure...don't Retrofit lamps fire up diffrently than standard lamps?

i'd bet more towards a diffrent ballast...but who knows...

Some fire up normally (the Philips and Ikwaski fires up normal bluish white) while most others start up red in color.....

Retrofit lamps are pretty expensive. I think changing the ballast would be the cheaper option in the long run. At Seekonk Speedway, the owner wants to change out all of the mercs with MH lights. I've tried to tell him retrofitting them will be cheaper, but he said the cost of labor will make changing the ballasts more expensive (he buys the track lights from surplus places which is why there are a handfull of models and brands of cobraheads). I guess soon enough the 400W MV 60s M-400s, AE 25s, OV-25s, M-400 split-door, and one or two MH current GE M-400 will be replaced. He also insists the new(ish) 400W MH GE M-400s that replaced the remaining original OV-25 remote ballast are mercury vapor, not MH (the do have mercs in them, but they're definatly probe start MH).

Oh actually the 400 watt MV ballast are the most compatible with 400 watt MH of all MV wattages...and have him look at the GE ballast, I'll guarantee it will say 400 watt MV/MH!

I don't think he service them himself. I believe he has a track electrician. I've even offered to change the ballasts so he could avoid labor costs but I guess I'm just a stupid kid to a 65-70 year-old man. I guess the big reason I'm concerned is because he was originally going to get MH cobraheads, but my uncle knows him well and said he'll get the cheapest lights for the job that he can.

He found a listing for over a hundred brand new 400W MH sports lights last year for $5 a unit with the lamp! If it wasn't for the fact that they were the wrong voltage, the whole track would have been updated with sportslighters, which would be very glarey compared to the cobraheads. Plus, the audience is also lit by the cobraheads. If flood lights or sports lights are used, there is no light shineing on the audience to see.

here's a night shot of the track. It is on the dim side, but it does the job of lighting the track and stands. There are a few sports lighters stuck in with the cobraheads for extra light at the turns in the track.

Where does your uncle get lights from? And I thought Re-Store was cheap.

Not my uncle. The track owner found the listing. I'm not sure where but maybe craig's list or something. Now you can see why he doesn't want to have the ballasts changed. Well, hopefully my uncle will ask him to set a few aside for me. I have no room though so they'd likely go to you guys though I'm not sure if he'd save any for me.

Hope you can get them, I still wouldn't mind getting a 60's M-400 and AE 25 from ya.

Sorry about that Darren. I'll try but I can't promise anything. At the very least I hope to get some vintage PCs like you asked before. But I still can't garentee anything sadly. I want to save them all, but I guess in reality it's just not possible to do so.

I am still waiting for that M-400 A3 to be ready. I have had that OVX packed and ready to be shipped for 3 months now. xD

has nothing to do with the picture ^

Thanks Ian for your patience, I hope to get it ready soon, I've been running way behind in everything lately. That would be great Michael if you can at least save me some vintage PC's,hopefully it will work out and you will be able to save a bunch of the fixtures.

O_o Ian's asking for lights.

Hope you can get those lights Mike.

@ Joe; I just took a bunch of pics. Right now i'm sorting through them and i'll upload them in a bit.