Did they make these in 1970 and introduce the bail latch M-250R1 later into 1970 or was their a brief overlap with the M-250R and M-250R1 being made together? I've seen a M-250R from February 1970 (BF date code). I know there was quite a long overlap of the American Electric 13, 113, 25, and 125 in the 1980s. I've seen Model 25s from 1989 and 125s from 1986-ish. I like overlaps. Gives more options.
I think the cutoff for the older design single door M250 and M400 was 1970. Probably because with the focus being on the new, modern split door M400, the all new M250A1 and redesigned housing of the M1000. All three shared the same two bolt/rocker slipfitter design.
It's too bad. The M-250R was way better built than the M-250R1. The M-250As from the 60s were tanks (I have a 100W MV one from 1967) but by the 80s they were about equal with the M-250R1 (I have another NOS 100W HPS one with 4-way optics from 1982). They thinned the casting at some point between those two. My July 1970 M-250R1 seems better built than my 1974 one. The casting lines are more defined and the rough spots were smoothed out more on the older GEs. My 1981 M-250CF (M-250R1 body with the Chicago "C" embossed on the door in place of the NEMA tag; ballast is mounted to the door and is designed to run 100W S54 lamps at either 70W or 90W with a restrike time of 10 seconds) has a very loosely-latching door, which seems to be typical of the cira-1980 M-250R1s. I see many of them missing doors.
I'd have to say the 1960s GE cobrahead line has to be the best line of cobraheads ever made. Nice looking, rock-solid, and quality lights. Their peak seems to have been between 1965 and 1969. Their pre-1965 ones I've seen get stuck screws, brittle reflector gaskets, and the latch was a PITA to operate. By 1965 they had perfected the cobrahead IMO. From then on all their changed were for the worse. Cheapen this, cheapen that. Though I have to say, the first generation of M-250R2s is a notch up from the M-250R1. My 1985 M-250R2 is rock solid. No paint left though; a problem the 80s GEs seemed to have more so than any other decade.
[url= (...) Narragansett Electric (NGrid now) installed thousands of these throughout the 70s. [/url] This is an actual NECo/NEES light from 1970. It's got a 100/175W MV dual-wattage 240V choke ballast with the photocell socket wired for 240V, so the supply wires are two hots and a neutral to the light. GE was clever about it too. Rather than rewire the light or move ballast taps to change the wattage, you simply connected the second hot wire to a different terminal for 100 or 175W. By the mid-70s though I think they were using a reversible plug to change from 100W MV to 175W, always wiring the fixtures for 100W MV from the factory.
In the 80s they used M-250A2 FCOs with the same "100/175W 240V ballast with 120V PC" set-up. Those factory-wired fixtures were almost always kept 100W when they were installed here but in some cases they were changed to 175W and the spare "17" NEMA tag supplied inside the light was applied sloppily over the factory-applied "10". Joe Maurath Jr. told me a number of them still had the loose "17" NEMA tag stuffed up into the wiring inside the fixtures when they were removed (and added to his collection). Of course, my M-250R1 has no NEMA tag though. The only way to tell what wattage it's wired for is by the lamp or looking at the terminal block label.
I've had a couple of M400 split doors over the years from roughly the same era, late 70s-early 80s and the only problem I had with the first one was the bolts that attach the refractor ring were stripped. Otherwise they are good lights. My other one which I currently have is good, along with an M400A1 FCO in my collection.
Oh yeah, good lights for sure. But nothing can compare to the quality of the mid-late 60s GE lights. They had it right at that time. BTW, Here is the corrected link from above. I must have formatted the coding for the link wrong in my comment above.
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I'd have to say the 1960s GE cobrahead line has to be the best line of cobraheads ever made. Nice looking, rock-solid, and quality lights. Their peak seems to have been between 1965 and 1969. Their pre-1965 ones I've seen get stuck screws, brittle reflector gaskets, and the latch was a PITA to operate. By 1965 they had perfected the cobrahead IMO. From then on all their changed were for the worse. Cheapen this, cheapen that. Though I have to say, the first generation of M-250R2s is a notch up from the M-250R1. My 1985 M-250R2 is rock solid. No paint left though; a problem the 80s GEs seemed to have more so than any other decade.
[url= (...) Narragansett Electric (NGrid now) installed thousands of these throughout the 70s. [/url] This is an actual NECo/NEES light from 1970. It's got a 100/175W MV dual-wattage 240V choke ballast with the photocell socket wired for 240V, so the supply wires are two hots and a neutral to the light. GE was clever about it too. Rather than rewire the light or move ballast taps to change the wattage, you simply connected the second hot wire to a different terminal for 100 or 175W. By the mid-70s though I think they were using a reversible plug to change from 100W MV to 175W, always wiring the fixtures for 100W MV from the factory.
In the 80s they used M-250A2 FCOs with the same "100/175W 240V ballast with 120V PC" set-up. Those factory-wired fixtures were almost always kept 100W when they were installed here but in some cases they were changed to 175W and the spare "17" NEMA tag supplied inside the light was applied sloppily over the factory-applied "10". Joe Maurath Jr. told me a number of them still had the loose "17" NEMA tag stuffed up into the wiring inside the fixtures when they were removed (and added to his collection). Of course, my M-250R1 has no NEMA tag though. The only way to tell what wattage it's wired for is by the lamp or looking at the terminal block label.
Surprised they didn't go LED though...