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Gardiner Expressway after construction
Heres the old fluorescent lights that they had in the late 1950's. These poles changed fixtures 3-5 times each since installation. They have seen the fluorescent over to LPS and LPS over to HPS OVC and AE 125's and even more recently OVX's. I decided to post this today because the Gardiner Expressway highway which is a bridge is to be demolished by the next decade. 
Keywords: Lighting_History

Gardiner Expressway after construction

Heres the old fluorescent lights that they had in the late 1950's. These poles changed fixtures 3-5 times each since installation. They have seen the fluorescent over to LPS and LPS over to HPS OVC and AE 125's and even more recently OVX's. I decided to post this today because the Gardiner Expressway highway which is a bridge is to be demolished by the next decade.

FPLOC_1.JPG fullsizeoutput_9b4.jpeg gardiner1.jpg gardiner3.jpg IMG_7917.JPG
File information
Filename:gardiner1.jpg
Album name:Model25FanForever / Ontario Vintage Lighting
Keywords:Lighting_History
Filesize:127 KiB
Date added:Feb 07, 2014
Dimensions:960 x 785 pixels
Displayed:278 times
URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=16969
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Comment 1 to 8 of 8
Page: 1

joe_347V   [Feb 07, 2014 at 03:58 AM]
I'm not sure but I think the lumes on this stretch of the Gardiner are GEs instead of the Powerlites used on the elevated stretch. Note the lack of a guardrail running down the median too. Apparently they retrofitted that in later.
streetlight98   [Feb 07, 2014 at 11:06 AM]
Nice! Yeah I've heard a lot of older freeways were like this, with a small island and no guardrail. Shocked I bet the cobraheads look odd on those poles with that angled up tilt.
joe_347V   [Feb 07, 2014 at 08:29 PM]
Yeah they do lol, the arms also have a extended tenon section that was originally designed for the fluorescent lumes. The LPS was installed sometime in the mid 70s and the HPS OVCs in 1997.

Speaking of the Gardiner, I heard the offramps used to be lit by fluorescent lights recessed in the railings, wish I could find a pic of that. I also noticed that they missed one LPS lume on the elevated section. Wonder if it still works at night.
streetlight98   [Feb 07, 2014 at 10:54 PM]
yeah those extended slipfitters look odd with cobraheads on them lol. If i were installing cobraheads on those arms I'd grab a pipe cutter and shorten the slipfitter down a little so it looks better but in reality when you're replacing over a hundred lights in the median of a busy freeway you have to do what you have to do in as little time as possible. Did they aim the lights as far down as they'll go so that they're not angled upwards as much? I'm guessing not... In some cases NECo did that with their fixtures so if a utility pole was on an angle, when they installed a new light the light was leveled in proportion to the ground, not the arm. That's all fine and dandy until the pole is renewed and the new pole is at a different angle and then the light aims either way up or way down lol. I've only seen this with the 80s aluminum cantilever arms and the very early 90s GE lights though...
Model25FanForever   [Feb 08, 2014 at 03:12 PM]
Yeah wasn't the last LPS right beside the Air Canada center at york street where the 115's are? I think thats where it was unless theres another one that you know exists currently. Yeah I agree Mike. Some of them are so awkward looking because the slipfitter is really really long. The new Davits they install have the short ones. I noticed theres some very stretchy looking Davits there. Long slipfitter and the round part of the Davit looks bent and longer.
joe_347V   [Feb 09, 2014 at 03:51 AM]
There was that one but it got removed sometime in 2011 or so. This one is still up though. It's one of the Philips LPS fixtures used to replace the Powerlite fluorescents.

Another interesting thing I noticed about the davit poles is that some of them have adapters on them. Razz
Model25FanForever   [Feb 09, 2014 at 12:32 PM]
Wow I never noticed it when I pass by there. Its short and small I could almost have mistaken it as a traffic camera. Usually the traffic cameras are on taller poles though. Interesting how they removed the top of the davit. I miss a lot of tiny details Laughing
joe_347V   [Feb 10, 2014 at 05:18 AM]
When I first saw it, I thought it was one of Powerlite fluorescents but I then later realized it was the Philips LPS lumes instead. I wonder if it works at night though. Oh and if you zoom in on the OVZ right behind it, you can see one of those slipfitter adapters I was talking about earlier.

Oh, and these are one of the few remaining Powerlite fluorescent lumes in the GTA. The ones in my pics got replaced with LED. Mad

Comment 1 to 8 of 8
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