Lighting Here and There

For some reason they were day burning for a couple of days whilst I was there, the whole stretch of them was on, a good photo opportunity if nothing else! Quite a few of them, like this one, only had one or two lamps working.

You don't really get an idea of just how big these things are- almost six feet long- at this distance. This pic was taken just east of Highland.

Again, this was taken east of Highland, looking east. You can see the whole stretch is on. Also notice many of the lamps are old, and quite greened- out, and dim...

as of Feb 2014
Another Hollywood pic., this one taken on Cahuenga just north of Hollywood Blvd. Three things here- some of the original post tops for this street are still here- GE Form 18-B I think...also some of those weird angular merc/MH fittings seen on car dealership lots all over LA (& nowhere else!)...and the Capitol Records building!

A close up of this flood. The incandescent lamp is still intact, but the thing probably hasn't worked in years.

Hmm...I think this one was taken somewhere off Wilshire, near Century City. These are series incandescent acorns, one at each corner of this intersection. We stood and watched this string come on at dusk...magical. There are thousands of these left all over LA!

This just shows how alone it was- in a sea of HPS lighting it really stood out!

These next few pictures are of the old streetlights display they have at the Los Angeles Bureau of Streetlighting, which I was lucky enough to get to look round whilst I was in LA.The picture below is a very rare sight- a look at the insides of a series regulator. You can see the high voltage secondary winding at the bottom with heavily insulated wires leading up each side, and the movable core in the centre with the mechanism for raising and lowering it into the windings, thus changing the coupling between primary and secondary windings, and hence the output voltage.

More post tops- they all have a small plaque giving model, manufacturer, and where they were installed.

More switching and general paraphinalia

A time switch cabinet, and a GE Form 19-B on wall bracket.

More post tops and acorns, bottom left.

A series circuit switch (hence the heavily insulated terminals)

The Hollywood Boulevard specials pictured earlier are all set to come down this year ('04), and will be replaced by these reproduction teardrops and ornate upsweep arms. They'll still be metal halide though.

Here's a look at some of their old mercury ballasts and series transformers... (top L> bot R) - GE 400W 6.6A series, Westinghouse 120/240V 400W multiple, Jefferson Electric 400W 6.6A series, Jefferson Electric 120/240V 400W multiple, ??, ??, Westinghouse 1kW 6.6A series, Westinghouse 1kW 120/240V multiple, ??, Jefferson 1kW 120/240V multiple. Never having seen a series transformer before, I was surprised that the wires were captive, surely if they were in the pole base ( as was often the case) they would have had to come with 30 ft. or so of wire attached?

Further along the wall, the 'who's who' of the past 50 years of American streetlighting continues...top row L>R -- Line materials Ovalite, GE Form 400, GE Form 109, Westinghouse OV-20, AE ??...middle row L>R -- 'Hillsider', Westinghouse OV-50 Silverliner, AE (ITT) 400, GE ??, Westinghouse OV-25 Silverliner...Bottom row L>R -- Holophane drop lens, Joslyn MV-141, Revel Reverse 400, (just visible) Westinghouse OV-20 top entry.

...and even further along they have more or less every GE teardrop and gumball you can think of....priceless.

What you're looking at here is the head of a GE teardrop with a QL lamp in it! There is one test installation of QLs in this sort of luminaire in Santa Monica, I have video of it and was quite impressed. The light from the QLs is very good, even after the (I think) 2 years the test has been going on, and suits the teardrops very well, even though it's not a strict point source like the original lamps were.

The inside of a Century City globe showing the quite elaborate reflector parts, making the distribution a lot more well controlled than you would expect from this sort of globe type luminaire.

You can see that whilst they used to be 3x 1kW mercury, they are now 3x 400W metal halide, the lamps needing socket extenders to keep the LCL for these shorter lamps in the correct place for the optics.

A view out of one side of the BSL yard, showing some of the smaller trucks.

The yard on the opposite side, with some of the pole stock.

...and that's us heading away, being very pleased after a great visit to the BSL!

as of Jul 2019
Here we are on Wilshire, the Miracle Mile district, where there are miles of these dual arm top entry fittings. They are almost all still clear merc., too and at night the illumination is most impressive! Notice the one missing fitting top left.

as of Jul 2019
This is the very top of Mulholland Drive, which is a bridge over the 101 Hollywood Freeway. Check out these amazing series incandescent teardrops, all still working and in very good condition! How did we know they are series? See the next- but- 1 pic...

A close up of one of the fittings in the previous pic., showing the detail of the arm, and the top of the concrete pole. All in fantastic condition...

What you can just about see here, is the series line heading off to other poles along the road. The loop starts here, and the regulator is in an underground chamber next to the cabinet you can see.

as of Jul 2019
Some more fluorescent fittings, on an old gas station lot.

It's a very good example of the way the sring is wired, usually there's loads of other stuff on the poles as well and you don't get as good a look.

What you see here is the beginning and end of the string, there is the regulator and the loop wires heading towards and away from the camera. If you get the fullsize picture and look carefully, you can see the loop is bridged to the right of the crossarm. These are the wires which go over the street and feed the other lights in a compound which actually belongs to the Scattergood plant and has offices and a parking lot. Also worth noting is that the regulator is actually located in the city of LA- the boundary is right on the edge of the compound belonging to the Scattergood plant where this pole is located. Looking at a map, the LA/El Segundo boundary actually extends over the road to the compound where the other pictured lights are.

Another view of two lamps on the string, and the access road they once lit...

...and a closeup of one of the lights.

as of Jul 2019
Two more teardrops- you can see the plant is right by the ocean.

as of some time after late 2008
This is S Centinela at Marshall in the Del Rey neighborhood of LA, and there are (were) the odd one or two teardrops (all series) still lighting some of the main streets, like this one.

as of Jan 2017
This is W Wasington at Campbell, despite being very near the previous location in Del Rey, this bit of W Washington is in Culver City. The OV35 shown here, was surviving as of Feb 2016, then at some point between then and Jan 2017, it was replaced by a davit arm and one of the induction fixtures Culver City liked to use a while back. Seems they have a few left for spot replacements!

as of mid 2016
This is still Culver City, we've gone north on W Washington and the freeway overpass ahead is the 405. The cross street is Corinth and the Joslyn MV-141 "spaceship" was still there as of mid 2016.

as of Oct 2018
Another view of this span wire luminaire. There were 3 of these on this stretch of Sepulveda in in Palms, two series incandescent and one which had been converted to multiple HPS. They were removed sometime between June and October 2015. The loop wire is still there, as are the poles, but the fixtures are gone.

as of 2011
This is Santa Monica Blvd at Franklin St in Santa Monica. Unfortunately the Form 400s here on the right disappeared sometime between mid 2008 and 2011.

Because they're on the seafront, they've taken a beating from generations of birds...

Heh, and you can see a bird right now adding to the corrosion!

There's even an ident on this pic.- Haynes St.

There's virtually every shape of drop lens you can think of round these parts...

This one's showing the mounting height and spacing...sort of!

I can't quite remember, but I think this is Victory Blvd. in Van Nuys. The triple arm poles are all HPS now, but these poles date from the times when 'more light is better' was the thinking on the main thoroughfares.

as of 2017
We're in Burbank now (heading east on Verdugo), where there is still a lot of this type of series installation. The series loop is overhead wired, and the isolation transformers are atop each pole. These have all been retrofitted to HPS though.

as of 2010
There are quite a few OV-20s left in Burbank- and here's one of them!

This is the junction of Olive and Verdugo in Burbank, you can see an OV-20 and Jim looking at what's in the next picture...

A good closeup of one of the OV-20s and the series regulator.

A nice shot of some OV-20s and the San Gabriel Mountains...

as of Jul 2019
Still in Burbank, this is a Revere 5442, Ultra-Lite series, and is called an 'acre of light' because that is how much area it was meant to light, I guess! This one was in a parking lot at the back of some shops.

as of Feb 2018
The next few pics are of the Vermonica exhibit, which is as you can see, on the median of a minimall parking lot on the corner of Santa Monica/ Vermont.

It was originally done as an art installation more than 10 years ago with the poles and lights being lent by the Bureau of Streetlighting. It has long outlived it's original life, but is still there...and maintained, as well.

You can see the median is well groomed, and at night the lights come on, but all are retrofitted with low wattage incandescent lamps, for obvious reasons!

Each pole has a plaque at the base telling where this type is to be found in LA.

as of Jul 2019
For some videos of this tunnel click here

Now here's something you'll all have seen in films...this is the 2nd St tunnel in downtown LA. It's still lit with series clear mercury...

Nearest to the camera, the lamps are clear merc., but beyond the 'flag' 2/3 the way down, the lamps change to coated ones.

as of 2017
This is looking south on the 300 block of S Olive. The structure over the street is the "water court" of the California Plaza complex, which fronts onto S Grand and consists of 2 skyscrapers and a plaza.
The complex was completed in 1985, which explains the metal halide fixtures, and the art on the wall to the right. As of now (2017) this view is largely unchanged- presumably the fixtures are not city owned or maintained, which explains their survival.

as of early 2017
Here's something a good deal more modern- this is the lower level of Grand, again in downtown LA. There's an installation of these 'light pipe' type of tunnel fittings, in this case 400W metal halide- the BSL red '40' sticker indicates this.

as of Jul 2019
You'll have to take my word for it, but the picture of this 175W mercury can was taken around the deck area of the Westin Bonaventure hotel (404 S Figueroa)

as of Jul 2018 (and working too)
Back in Santa Monica, here's a really old walkway light on a bridge over PCH. I include it because the style of pole construction- just pieces of iron pipe joined with reducers- is very similar to an extremely old series incandescent installation at La Canada Flintridge.

as of Mar 2019
A bird splattered OV-20 on the median just where Hwy1 turns the corner to go inland. Thomas Guide has this as Palisades Beach Rd in Santa Monica.

as of 2017
This is approximately 2511 Wilshire in Santa Monica- behind the shop fronts there is a tennis court which appears to belong to the Santa Monica Tennis Center- which has a shop which fronts onto Wilshire.
The arrangement of lighting is unusual, consisting of a span wire with 3 hibay fixtures. I've not seen it lit at night, but as of early 2017 it was still there.

as of 2005
A solitary coated merc at the entrance to Camrose at the intersection with Highland, in Hollywood. Little did I know when I took this, how rare utilitarian mercury fixtures in LA were to become. It was replaced with a FCO HPS sometime after 2005.

as of Aug 2005
Almost done now- here's a look at Hollwood Boulevard at the intersection with Highland Ave., the 3- lamp 'specials' giving a very good account of themselves!

as of Jun 2015
This is Paramount Drive, off Camrose Dr in the Hollywood Heights area. What you've got here is a HPS retrofit. The isolation transformer and lampholder are all mounted on a series socket which just plugs in...there's enough room in the acorn to accomodate the increased height of the assembly.

as of late 2017
And finally....this was taken from a Gold Line tram heading to Union Station, which has seen a lot of building work recently but some old lights still survive. Here's a pole with some incandescent area floods, and a smaller light which couldn't have been any use because this is all about 50 feet in the air!
It must have been to light what was once a marshalling yard or other parts of the property adjacant to Union Station itself. It was an empty lot in 2004 when this pic was taken, soon after a development called "Mozaic at Union Station Apartments" was built, and the lights now point over the top of this building. As at the end of 2017 they are still there, and might remain so as the pole does not seem to be in the way of anything that might cause it to be removed. The pole itself is right on the southwest corner of the bridge that goes over E Cesar E Chavez, and can be viewed directly from there or by driving on Union Station Driveway from Cesar Chavez and going right round those apartments. You'll end up on top of the bridge, on a small open area with the pole right up against the apartments property line.