Gallery of Lights
Lanterns/Fixtures => Vintage => Topic started by: joe_347V on August 02, 2011, 10:40:07 PM
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Here's a some links to a some sites and a youtube video showing how the streetlights looked in the Toronto area before the HPS refit in the early 90s.
1. Vintage King's Highways, a site showing highway and street scenes of mostly the Toronto area sorted by year, you can see some old clamshells on the QEW page, and old Powerlites on the 401 page. The other pages have some neat stuff too. Link (http://asphaltplanet.ca/ON/vintage/)
2. The King's Highway.ca, another highway site, this one also has some pics of old lumes too, this one has more general Ontario pics than the first one. Link (http://www.thekingshighway.ca/)
3. Youtube video of Hurontario Street in the late 80s, the video is a bit low res but it's pretty neat since it shows a drive through of Hurontario St. in Mississauga back when MV lights were still in use. If you watch the entire video you'll see some dayburners, clamshells, a set or green traffic signals and I think some OV 25 flatties too. Part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpoYxfexFSQ)|Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Eo1fTPHc60&feature=related)
4. The Toronto Archives, has lots of old pics of Toronto but you really need to dig to sort though the large number of pics on this site. Search Link (http://gencat.eloquent-systems.com/toronto.html) (Check scanned photos only for easier searching)
5. The Niagara Fall Archives, mostly pics from the Niagara and St. Catherines area though, you have to do some searching like with the Toronto Archives though. Search Link (http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/start.asp?db=images)
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Sometimes I wish I was born in the 70's :MV: :P
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Here's a good night pic:
(http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/data/0/2/95002-512463.jpg)
So many :MV: lamps complete with Powerlite Sign Floods. ;D
QEW and Dorchester Rd. May 1976
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Here's (http://transit.toronto.on.ca/images/streetcar-4119-04.jpg) another interesting pic, check out that arm the gumball in the background is mounted on. :o
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The arm that the gumball is mounted on looks liek the ones Niall has posted with the R37s on it.
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It's actually even taller :o , but those arms along with the gumballs are gone now. Having been replaced with I believe cobras and tapered e arms (the pic was from the 70s).
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I'd love to see freeways that looked like the one you found a pic of. :D
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Here's (http://asphaltplanet.ca/ON/vintage/401/1989/Etobicoke/401_46.jpg) another freeway pic (401 near Dixon, '89) note the mercury Powerlite B2213s which were replaced with HPS highmasts a few years after.
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There sure is nothing like those B2213s. :D Those early powerlites are very classic looking. It'd be really nice to see new B2213, B2215, and b2217 start popping up. That's extremely unlikely though. Even though AEL has the powerlite molds, these molds were probably discarded along the line if not AEL trashed all the powerlite molds. It's be awesome to find an old spec sheet or advertisment.
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In case you haven't seen this one:
(http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/206/f0217s0249fl0118it0001.jpg) (http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/206/f0217s0249fl0118it0001.jpg)
Powerlite B2215s shortly after installation, 1967 at 401 and Spadina Expwy. (now known as Allen Rd). Note the HO fluorescent signlights on the sign. The B2213s would have been on the freeway in the background.
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Yep. I've seen that picture. Nice shiney powerlites. ;D
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Which was replaced with this:
(http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_P7250241.JPG)
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That's more interesting than the FCO M-400 on davits that's found here.
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Here's (http://asphaltplanet.ca/ON/vintage/QEW/1981/QEW_1981_09.jpg) how Ontario freeway lights would have looked back in the 50s and early 60s. Note the remote ballasted clamshells.
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Our freeways looked very much the same at that point. Here the clamshells were installed on PC adapters. A special splitfitter with a PC socket would attatch to the mast arm. The clamshell would bolt onto the PC's mast. Like an extra piece to the puzzle. :)
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Here's (http://asphaltplanet.ca/ON/vintage/6/6_1.jpg) an example of the davit poles that succeeded the double guys and clamshells for freeway lighting during the 1960s.
This design was short lived though with the truss poles being adopted by the late 60s.
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Those davits are nice with interesting lights on them. The davits at Rocky Point Park in warwick have 400w OV15, M-400, M-400 slpit door, 1 M-400R2, and 1 OV25. That calls for an interesting bunch........ There are lots of M-400 and OV25 on wood poles that are slowly falling down and 1 model 25 on a wood pole over a dumpster in the park. Yuo can see one bit of the pole at all due to thick vines and trees, but the light along with it's smashed glass lens and part of tha mast are visible. There's a big nest in there too. The power's been long cut off, so it think it's still OK.
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By the late 60s the davit design was getting less popular and the truss design was getting widely used. The older truss poles were concrete. These concrete truss poles would have originally carried B2215/B2213s (later switching to B2255/B2228s) had was used roughly from the late 60s to the early-mid 80s.
(http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_PA233724M.JPG)
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I'm a bit rusty on what was used here, but when the cobraheads rolled out, they seemed to alter between aluminum truss/tapered E arms on anchor base aluminum poles and aluminum davits on anchor base poles for new installations depending on what they had. When they chose davits, all the poles were davits and when they chose trusses/tapered Es, there were no davitas mixed in (Except for spot replacements however).
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After the mid 80s the concrete poles was replaced with steel poles, here's my best guess as to why:
Improvements to freeway design standards during that time meant that the old concrete poles were no longer feasible for freeways. One of these improvements was the use of concrete jersey barriers instead of the twin W beam (see above) as the standard median barrier. The design of the jersey barrier meant the the old concrete poles were hard to install in the median.
Another was the fact that making a breakaway concrete pole was hard and even if it was breakaway the high mass of a concrete pole meant that pole knocks often did a lot of damage.
Here's what a steel truss pole looks like, they were widely used from the early-mid 80s to the early-mid 90s although some have popped up from time to time.
(http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_P8162562S.JPG)
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I know in some places in mass, when the jersey barriers were installed, they made the barriers go around the pole so the pole was potected from vehicles and they didn't have to alter the poles. In the days of the steel guard rail in RI, the light poles were mounted on the sides of the road versus the median. After the jersey barriers became more popular here, lights were installed both in the median and sides depending on the area. Now, all new installations have the poles mounted on the sides instead of the median thoguh.
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The newer concrete barriers a a bit taller and have a different pole base on them. They use special poles with a elongated base. The older jersey barriers had a cutout for the pole and used poles with standard square bases.
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The jersey barriers here have a cut-out as well. The ones here seem to ahve been casted with the cutout. The bases are standard here.
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The cutouts in ours is cast too you can tell them apart since they have expansion joints next to them.
Moving to the original topic of old Ontario streetlighting, here's (http://asphaltplanet.ca/ON/vintage/QEW/1978/QEW_1978_02.JPG) a shot of some Powerlite B2213s firing up for the night. :MV:
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:o How I'd love to be there! :D
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Check out the 70s era angled signage on the last pic. :D
Here's (http://asphaltplanet.ca/ON/vintage/2/2_9.jpg) some LPS lights on the Gardiner, these were removed and replaced by 250w AEL 125s in May 2006ish. :(
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Our big signs overhead face down a few degrees as well so the motorist can see the sign more clearly.
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Our big signs overhead face down a few degrees as well so the motorist can see the sign more clearly.
Not that note that the sign had a angled cut on them to indicate to the driver which direction was the exit.
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Ahh. :-[ We've always stuck to the basics here. :P :( At one point RI was a state of all clamshells and mercury cobraheads. The late 80's- early 90's was a horrible era for those mercs.... :'(
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Here's (http://asphaltplanet.ca/ON/vintage/409/1978/409_1978_03.JPG) some mercury B2255s which was replaced with HPS cobras and now with highmast lights.
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I wonder if people back then thought MV was too common like how we think HPS is now.
Back then we still has incandescent gumballs in downtown Toronto and in some older residential streets. We also had fluorescent lights and LPS lights too.
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I found out Narragansett Electric used LPS in a small test area, but they never became widely used, as they were disliked by NE Co. i have a pole tag from my grandpa's basement that I'll post later......
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Here's (http://asphaltplanet.ca/ON/vintage/Tor_1989_misc/westend_11.jpg) a old style Ontario crosswalk complete with some nice :MV: clamshells.
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Form 400! :D Are those LPS "X" lights still common? I don't think I saw any while I was in CA....
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They are in the city, not that common in the suburbs though:
(http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_PA063407.JPG) (http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-8743)
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they should make blue LED croswalk lights so they stand out from the HPS glow. :P
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They should have changed them to HO fluorescent or redesigned the signs for MH. They work great in MH lit areas and you can somewhat tell them apart in HPS because of the redder light.
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yeah. What about a 1KW carbon arc ped light? ;D
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The oldest ones used MV floods:
(http://www.blogto.com/upload/2011/08/201188-yonge9.jpg)
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Hmm. Attatchign a HPS floodlight to one of those would be good for CMH areas. :MH: We need a MH lamp icon so I can use it. :P
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For CMH areas I would stick with the traditional LPS.
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You have a good point....
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LPS lights on The Gardiner firing up for the night, this section was removed in 1997 and replaced with HPS Cooper OVCs.
(http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/96beb69b-1.jpg) (http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/96beb69b.jpg)
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I don't have any pics of LPS here. There were very few installed by Narragansett Electric. All I have is Joe M's word about the LPS lights.
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(http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/31ce8847-1.jpg) (http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/31ce8847.jpg)
Here we see some Powerlite B2215s replacing the old clamshells as part of a freeway expansion project. (I believe Yonge and 401, mid 60s)
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Wow. That's an ironic sight right there. Now the cobraheads are beign phased out up there for highmasts, right?
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A lot changed (http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll=43.756007,-79.409343&spn=0.000959,0.002621&t=m&z=19&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=43.756007,-79.409343&panoid=7qC7uHT-l7mvAqOHW_7iSg&cbp=12,127.03,,0,-7) over the years eh?
Here's another cool pic, although I forgot the exact location where it was taken. (I think somewhere in Scarborough on maybe Eglinton?)
(http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/bb8fee88-1.jpg) (http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/bb8fee88.jpg)
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Sweet! Here's an ad for a Providence teardrop. (http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/albums/userpics/thumb_Powering_Providence.jpg) There's a better shot in my gallery.
*Credit to Joe Maurath for the pic.
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Here's some more clamshells, complete with old signals and shovel lights.
(http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/96f92238.jpg)
Eglinton and Midland, April 1960
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these pictures make my mouth water. :MV: :P
Goodness. :o ;D
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Sweet. Look at those nice arms and old fashioned Coca-Cola signs. :o
Here, you can see an old rusty arm with a 250w HPS M-250R2. There are a few of these around. More are aluminum braced upsweeps. Anyways, you can see a remote ballast can. There was either a Form 109 or OV20 on this pole at one point! :o :D (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=cranston+Rte+2+Reservoir+Ave&hl=en&ll=41.78109,-71.441448&spn=0.000002,0.001827&safe=active&fb=1&gl=us&hq=Ave&hnear=Rhode+Island+2,+Providence,+Rhode+Island+02910&t=h&vpsrc=6&fll=41.779803,-71.442976&fspn=0.000944,0.003653&z=20&layer=c&cbll=41.78102,-71.441544&panoid=FUYPszKKe5yvyUaJt2WYKw&cbp=12,91.62,,1,-15.83)
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(http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/65915485-1.jpg) (http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/65915485.jpg)
Here we a have picture of the west end of Toronto (the intersection of Weston and Lawrence (http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll=43.700194,-79.516382&spn=0.007617,0.020964&t=m&vpsrc=6&z=16&layer=c&cbll=43.700217,-79.516475&panoid=v7HOJL6LXAjpAb2yq9GQ2Q&cbp=12,117.35,,0,2.53)) in the 1960s, check out the neon DONT WALK ped signal on the right hand side.
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We have some of those ped signals still lying around here. :o
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All of the old worded peds were gone (at least here) by the mid 70s having been replaced by the symbols and incandescent dual section ones.
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They're mostly disconnected though. Most liky the lamps died. As intersections are upgraded, the new peds are symbols and non-pixelated.
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Here's (http://www.thekingshighway.ca/PHOTOS/hwy401-537_lg.jpg) some more clamshells, it's the same interchange where the B2215s were being installed.
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:o More clamshells! :D Oh boy! I can Imagine what North America looked like in the 50's-80's..........
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Ontario mostly used clamshells and gumballs back in the 50s and early 60s.
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I guess I should get a night scene of this (http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-9464) eh?
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Yes! please do! :D
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Night scene of the mercs I mentioned before:
(http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_100_2186.JPG) (http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-9925)
View from the other direction (http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-9924)
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Here's another cool pic, it's a colour pic of some clamshells in Toronto, not sure where it is though.
(http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/7c4b2ff3-1.jpg) (http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/7c4b2ff3.jpg)
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Well, decided to revive this thread so I could post some more vintage shots of Toronto :P
Lawrence Avenue and Don Valley Parkway, 1960s
(http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/d9195096.jpg)
How it looks now, (http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll=43.738918,-79.334872&spn=0.011302,0.019119&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=43.738917,-79.334331&panoid=aZmymOGJh9DeVn9jLiU1hQ&cbp=12,72.2,,0,-0.91) the button copy signage has long since been replaced along with the Powerlite fluorescent lights but the some of the davit poles remain they now hold OV 25s instead.
Eglinton Avenue near Bellamy Road, Scarborough (now part of Toronto)
(http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/9007b7fd.jpg) (http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss50/joseph_125ON/Gallery%20of%20Lights/9007b7fd.jpg)
How it looks now, (http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll=43.740112,-79.232948&spn=0.01124,0.019119&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=43.740083,-79.233074&panoid=AiAsWDk30BpHqtFgznsi4g&cbp=12,73.74,,0,-10.25) a lot has changed here the clamshells and poles have long since disappeared as well as the signals in the background.
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Sweet OV-35! :D I found a pic of Interstate 95 in 1982. You can still see the origional OV-25 that were installed in 1957 or so when 95 became an interstate.
(http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/albums/userpics/I-95in1982.jpg)