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Fallen Pyle!
Final update to the falling Pyle fixtures. It seems like they were taken down since the fixture is still fully fully intact. Also, I'm not sure what happened to the second light. 
Keywords: American_Streetlights

Fallen Pyle!

Final update to the falling Pyle fixtures. It seems like they were taken down since the fixture is still fully fully intact. Also, I'm not sure what happened to the second light.

TOR_20170415_160234_M.jpg TOR_20170415_160234_M.jpg TOR_20170415_160234_M.jpg TOR_20170415_160234_M.jpg 20161102_194154.jpg
File information
Filename:TOR_20170415_160234_M.jpg
Album name:joe_347V / Toronto Area Streetlights
Keywords:American_Streetlights
Filesize:1047 KiB
Date added:Apr 16, 2017
Dimensions:2999 x 1884 pixels
Displayed:263 times
URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=21804
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Comment 1 to 11 of 11
Page: 1

m@   [Apr 17, 2017 at 01:19 AM]
oh you came over to scope the scene!
Maybe the contractors working on the temp signals at that intersection did a favour and took these danglers down? Maybe a local member already took one fixture? lol. I honestly am not sure.
ZarlogH46   [Apr 17, 2017 at 02:26 AM]
Did you snatch it?
streetlight98   [Apr 17, 2017 at 02:38 AM]
I wonder what lamp was inside? Looks pretty risky to take the fixture from a parking lot next to a busy road in broad daylight though nobody would probably notice you taking pictures of the inside. Interesting light for sure.
joe_347V   [Apr 17, 2017 at 08:01 AM]
Yeah, I was at the nearby Restore so I figured I might as well check out the Pyles. It was on a pretty busy street, it's actually next to a freeway ramp so I didn't snatch it but apparently someone else did since the pole had two lights.

Yeah, I took a quick look of the outside but wasn't able to tell what was inside since the lens was clouded. Forgot to check inside. Perhaps one of the local members could stop by for a quick look inside.
ZarlogH46   [Apr 17, 2017 at 12:14 PM]
Every time I see a knockdown on the side of the freeway here the light itself is missing. I don't know why the lights are never there, it's like someone is taking them. (It's not me, I swear!).
streetlight98   [Apr 17, 2017 at 04:27 PM]
@ Zarlog: Yeah I noticed the same thing. The fixture and associated parts go missing and the pole is left there. Could be copper guys going after the ballasts. Either that or the road crews that respond to the accident to clean up the debris remove what's left of the fixture and clean up the loose parts (which is probably more likely since stopping on a freeway to grab a couple bucks worth of scrap metal is a little ballzy for a junkman). The poles are too big so they get left and eventually picked up with a flat-bed truck or they come back and chop them up.

I actually did stop on the side of a freeway to grab a mutilated M-250R2 and 10ft truss arm. The pole got hit and the welds holding the arm to the pole failed (but the pole is still up, albeit bent and leaning quite a bit). The M-250R2 was from 2012 with original lamp and PC in it. The cast housing was destroyed but the lamp, ballast, ignitor, capacitor, and door survived perfectly! The PC was destroyed (but I could see the date on the base) and so was the glass refractor. The PC socket was cracked but still usable and the reflector was dinged up but usable. I removed the fixture nameplate and also saved the slipfitter clamp and brackets and all the screws. I saved everything except the top housing actually.

With the M-250R2s, when the poles get hit, the door almost always falls off right away and when the arm broke off and the thing sailed through the air the reflector likely tore off mid-flight and landed softly , which is why the lamp was intact. The reflector was about 10ft away from the fixture. The top housing had broken into three pieces around the PC socket. One piece had all the components except the capacitor. the other piece had the capacitor and the screw that was supposed to hold the reflector. The third piece had nothing on it so I left it on-scene.
ZarlogH46   [Apr 17, 2017 at 06:24 PM]
Another thing I have noticed is that the breakaway poles around here seem to be rather, er, weak. Every time there is a snowstorm and the plows come through pushing snow to the side the poles seem to fall like dominoes. Rolling Eyes I have seen a few LED roadkills that would be very easy to take, but they are always either completely obliterated or not damaged at all. If the light isn't damaged in any way, I am not going to take it since it can just probably be put back up.
Model25FanForever   [Apr 18, 2017 at 01:03 AM]
I think the other light was the one that I saw on the ground! The one thats missing was closer to the red and white sign on the photo on the right. Someone must have got it. Looks easy to open up?
streetlight98   [Apr 18, 2017 at 02:42 AM]
@ Zarlog: Even if the light isn't damaged they will probably replace it since there might be some damage they can't visibly see and they're not going to go through the trouble to bench test it and reinstall it. It wouldn't be unreasonable for them to assume it's junk if it fell 35ft to the ground. I'd say grab an undamaged one if you can do so without anyone seeing you and you know there are no electrical hazards. Most times there's a fuse in the pole base or in a in-ground handhole next to the pole which is designed to cut-out when the pole is hit but they're not fool-proof. When the pole falls, by some crazy odds the pole could become live. Aluminum is a good conductor of elctricity. Steel poles might not conduct as well but would still pose a shock hazard, especially at higher voltages. Around here all the poles are aluminum. The RIDOT ones are probably 277V but NGrid uses 120V freeway lights oddly enough lol.
ZarlogH46   [Apr 18, 2017 at 01:26 PM]
120v for freeways? That seems kinda odd. Also, I would only ever touch a roadkill light if the wires going to it are broken clean off or missing. I wouldn't want to take chances.
streetlight98   [Apr 18, 2017 at 03:01 PM]
Yep they're connected directly to a single phase transformer on a nearby convenient utility pole. When they were MV they were 240V (so the underground wiring is 240V) but when they went HPS they used 120V lights so they snipped and removed the second hot wire from the poles.

Comment 1 to 11 of 11
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