Lighting here & there - LA pics 2005-8 and newer

LA pics 2005-8 and newer

75 pics

as of Feb 2022
Despite there being plenty of pictures on this page of old Caltrans freeway lights that were removed years ago, Glen Norman is still turning up forgotten examples in 2022 - good on you, Glen!
This is a Caltrans standard cast type OV20 with a glare shield, on a CD 925 pole. It's missing its glass, but Glen tells me the clear mercury lamp is still intact, so it might still work. As the pic shows, it's located at the entrance of the onramp of the 110 freeway northbound, on Georgia St. This is part of the large 10/110 interchange, just southwest of downtown LA, near the convention center. I thought this might be University Park (90007) but the Thomas Guide shows it as being in 90015. The BSL Patrol Maps show this light, although part of the Caltrans system, is maintained by the BSL under contract to Caltrans. This might explain why it has meen missed, when Caltrans changed the rest of the lights on this interchange to LED.
Pic credit: Glen Norman, taken 25 Feb 2022.

as of Aug 2012 for LED fixures
This is the other side of the same freeway interchange as the previous pic. When this pic was taken in Sep 2011, there were still some interesting sights under LA's freeways, however we never spotted the light in the other pic. This location is got to by going west on W 17th St in downtown LA, just north of the 10 freeway. Just after crossing S Grand, instead of taking the freeway onramp, bear right and you end up on S Hope St. This is still W 17th St, just, I think. In the picture you can see the freeway onramp, and the lights of interest are underneath the offramp, nearer in the shot. This twin arm short pole with gumball fixtures would probably have had clear mercury lamps, and been fed from a series system. It's also possible they were series incandescent but I never saw them lit. Similar ones in Toluca Lake are clear mercury though.

as of Jan 2022
Click medium size pictures above for full size.
A rather odd picture to start this section with but this strange arrangement is at the south end of Isis Ave in El Segundo, at one of the entrances of part of the parking lot for the Big 5 Sporting Goods on E El Segundo Blvd. There's 2 mercury lamps with a post top ballast, but also 2 small (looking like 150W) halogen tubes pointing out to the side, this was on the street side so the halogens were pointing, well, nowhere! This was all standing alone on the parking lot, there was a meter at the bottom of the pole so the thing did have power. Whether it worked or not, I couldn't say as I didn't see it at night.
Pic taken May 2005.

Update Jan 2018: All still there as of Jan 2018. Looking again at the arrangement, my best guess is that the 3- head pole looks like it might be old enough to have originally sported 3 shovel hat fixtures. At some point, perhaps the 1960s, the shovel hats were removed and replaced with the twin mercury fixture, and later still the halogens were added to perhaps illuminate signs that are now long gone. Halogen tubes for flood lighting only started to become generally available in the 1970s.

as of 2006
Some pics now of a few relics left on LA's freeways. These are getting more and more rare, as there seems to be a replacement program underway right now. I'm not sure that all of these are still there (as at August 2007). This is an OV-20 with glare shield, once a common sight. This sequence of pics was taken on the northbound section of the Harbor Fwy. Between Flower and Figueroa there's a disused northbound onramp to the 110 from S Flower, the lights were on there.
Pic taken May 2005.

Update Jan 2018: Caltrans has more or less completed their upgrade, these fixtures were probably gone by 2006.

They're mostly on on or off ramps these days...
Pic taken May 2005.

...but some are still on the freeway itself. They are usually clear mercury lamped.
Pic taken May 2005.

...and there are one or two without glare shields. This is a cast type OV-20.
Pic taken May 2005.

as of late 2010
This is looking South on San Gabriel Blvd at Las Tunas in San Gabriel, and some good old relics...quite a few OV-20s...
Pic taken May 2005.

as of late 2010

Update 2012: As of late 2010, all the Ovalites on Las Tunas in San Gabriel were replaced with GE LED fixtures.

...and here's the reason to visit Las Tunas Dr itself- a large- but decreasing- run of L-M Ovalites.
Pic taken May 2005.

as of late 2010

Update 2012 As of late 2010, all the Ovalites on Las Tunas in San Gabriel were replaced with GE LED fixtures.

There's still quite a few of them, although the city is having trouble with spares so there are quite a few spot replacements appearing.
Pic taken May 2005.

A close-up. Note the refractor elements on the lens. They are all still mercury.
Pic taken May 2005.

The ones that still are there are in quite good contition. There are a few missing their lenses though.
Pic taken May 2005.

as of late 2010

Update 2012 As of late 2010, all these Ovalites on Las Tunas in San Gabriel were replaced with GE LED fixtures.

As at July 2007 there were still a good run of them there- go to Las Tunas between Baldwin & Rosemead in San Gabriel to see them.
Pic taken May 2005.

as of 2020
There are still miles of these double arm Form 101-FR clear mercury lamped poles on Wilshire, as the next few pictures show. This one is at Parklabrea, the unusual building opposite is a Staples office supply.
Pic taken May 2005.

as of Mar 2021
Heading east on Wilshire, you can see some are in better condition than others.
Pic taken May 2005.

Update 2012: As of 2011 all the old mercury lights on Wilshire have been replaced with Holophane repro MH lamped teardrops.

East of San Vicente on Wilshire, you're in Beverly Hills, and the lighting becomes OV-20s- but still all mercury (still there July 2007)
Pic taken May 2005.

Update 2012: As of 2011 all the old mercury lights on Wilshire have been replaced with Holophane repro MH lamped teardrops.

Beverly Hills, good looking poles and bases too.
Pic taken May 2005.

Heading north out of Beverly Hills up Coldwater Canyon Dr., I guess this still just about counts as West Hollywood (the cross street is Sherwood Forest). Here's a survivor- a series teardrop.
Pic taken May 2005.

Update Jan 2018: Some time after 2011, this light and the others on this loop were removed as part of the LA BSL LED conversion programme.

A closeup reveals the unusual porcelain head/ insulator assembly.
Pic taken May 2005.

Having popped off Coldwater Canyon, we're in the Valley now, and this is coming up to the intersection of Victory and Van Nuys, in Van Nuys...looking east.These triple heads were once 3 * 1kW mercury, as Van Nuys played the 'brightest city' game in the 60s, too...
Pic taken May 2005.

Update Jan 2018: Some time after 2011, the luminaires were changed to LED but the 3 head poles are still there.

There's pictures of this installation as it was at the LA BSL museum.
Pic taken May 2005.

I'm fairly sure this is Mt Hollywood Dr., on the way up to the Griffith Park Observatory. The tunnel used to be lit with incandescent gumballs, but they were removed soon after this pic was taken.
Pic taken May 2005.

as of 2020
A couple more pics of the Form 101-FRs on Wilshire, taken between Western and Normandie.
Pic taken May 2005.

as of Jan 2022
A couple of shots now of some of the wonderful old poles and teardrops left in downtown. These pics taken on Alameda just north of Union Station.
Pic taken May 2005.

You've doubtless seen copies- well these are the originals! These are GE Form 81-D 'ornate' luminaires.
Pic taken May 2005.

Same street- different light. There is often a difference on the depth of the teardrop bowl, this one being slightly shorter that some.
Pic taken May 2005.

Update Jan 2018: This is possibly Bauchet St, it has been changed since the pic was taken and these lights are no longer there.

as of 2020
Back on Wilshire now, on this day there were a whole stretch of the Form 101-FRs dayburning- these pics taken between Western and Normandie as I remember.
Pic taken May 2005.

as of 2020
Unfortunately this stretch was not all working- several poles with only one fixture alight, and if you look to the left, one fixture missing completely.
Pic taken May 2005.

as of May 2016
Just off the I-10 in West Covina is the Westfield West Covina Mall and there are quite a few Alcoa poles with Century City fixtures there- there's a separate page on this installation here
Pic taken May 2005.

Update Jan 2018: Starting around May 2016 roadworks on W Garvey S, which is the road that runs along the south side of the 10 and enters the mall on the west side, meant the replacement of that run of Alcoa poles and ball fixtures with LEDs. There are still some of the 3 head poles on Sunset though.

as of early 2018
This is Kareem Court in Inglewood, the Forum is on the left of the pic. What you're looking at here is an SCE LED fixture test site. There are two types of fixtures, the first type nearest the camera, the second just beyond the HPS fixture you can see beyond the first two. The HPS fixtures give a good idea of how cold the colour temp. of the LED fixtures is.
Pic taken July 2008.

Update Jan 2018: Latest GSV (May 2017) shows those 2 test fixtures still in place, along with the rest of the HPS on that street.

Kareem Court, Inglewood SCE LED test site. A closeup of one of the LED fixtures, manufacturer unknown.
Pic taken July 2008.

as of early 2018
Kareem Court, Inglewood SCE LED test site. The second type of fixture (again manufacturer unknown), the furthest away in the main pic. This one isn't too well, of the two LED arrays one is out.
Pic taken July 2008.

The fixture here is nothing remarkable- just a quad MH parking lot thing, located just off the I-5 in Santa Clarita, but the camera caught the different ages of MH lamps quite well, and I wonder if the bugs are due to poor maintenance, or bad fixture design?
Pic taken June 2006.

as of 2010

Update 2012: Some time in 2010 all the series installation and lights round Olive/Verdugo were removed. No trace of the above exists, it's all multiple wired FCO HPS now.

One of my favourite OV-20 locations in the Valley- this is Olive & Verdugo (the cross street ahead is Beachwood) in Burbank. To the left is one of the few OV-20s with a rounded type (earlier) lens, and the poletop series transformers, the overhead line and the San Gabriel mountains in the background make for a good picture.
Pic taken June 2006.

A close up of the series regulator at Olive & Verdugo.
Pic taken June 2006.

A close look at the old rounded glassware on this OV-20. The fixture itself is newer than the glass would suggest - it's a single U-bolt cast type, made from 1954 onwards.
Pic taken June 2006.

Here you can get a good look at the series regulator, the line and insulator, and the way the low voltage line gets into the arm- through the top of the pole.
Pic taken June 2006.

The Genio's restaurant was gone soon after this pic was taken.

as of Nov 2021
This fine example of a GE Form 81-D 'ornate' fixture can be found right at the southern end of Barham Blvd on the bridge over the Hollywood Fwy, just at the intersection with Cahuenga. There are a few of these here, they are all clear mercury.
Pic taken June 2006.

as of Nov 2021
There is a whole row of teardrops heading south on Cahuenga, too.
Pic taken June 2006.

This is PCH at Wesley in Laguna Beach, a rather odd but pleasant nevertheless, repro fixture.
Pic taken March 2007.

These are in Brea, just near the Orange Fwy, and as far as I can tell they are reproductions. A little too heavy for the poles, too!
Pic taken March 2007.

as of Dec 2020
A closeup here of the parking lot fixtures at the Puente Hills Mall (City of Industry), made famous by its role in the Back to the Future films. They are 3x1kW MH.
Pic taken March 2007.

Update Mar 2018: A lot of these fixtures were still surviving as of late 2017.

The location of this fixture is uncertain, somewhere in West LA (or even the west valley) on a stripmall parking lot, but it's representative of the large quantities of clear mercury still burning in LA, whether on city streets, or privately owned as here.
Pic taken March 2007.

as of Dec 2020 (fixtures)
Apologies for the blurry picture, but this is a very unusual sight. It's at Brand Blvd where it goes under I-5 in San Fernando, and what you're looking at are gumball fixtures, an unusual sight in itself as the City of LA uses cast-in underpass lights nowadays (picture in the BSL museum section). The really unusual thing, and something I've not seen anywhere else (apart from the Sepulveda underpass on the 405 at exit 59- Getty Center Dr), is that they are on conduit to bring the mounting height down by a few feet. Not sure of the light source, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were incandescent.
Pic taken July 2007.

Update Mar 2018: Still surviving as of late 2016, not sure if they have been retrofitted to multiple LED or not.

as of Jan 2018
This is one of the iconic poles surrounding the Theme building at LAX. They have replacement luminaires these days, but are still white light- metal halide.
Pic taken March 2007.

As I remember, this is N Broadway coming into downtown LA, I like the huge davit arms on these poles.
Pic taken July 2007.

Around the Chinatown area there are many of these ornate poles and various old teardrop luminaires. I believe these are Westinghouse AK-14. These are at the intersection of Alameda and Cesar E Chavez.
Pic taken July 2007.

An iconic sight around downtown LA- a Union Metal 1906 pole, the luminaires are GE Form 9.
Pic taken July 2007.

An iconic sight around downtown LA- a Union Metal 1906/GE Form 9 combination. No need to say which the cross street was here! These have been retrofitted to HPS.
Pic taken July 2007.

On Olympic now, heading west and these poles are called 'Olympic Specials', the originally stretched from downtown to West LA, there are still many around, some with modern luminaires, some, like this one, with a GE FOrm 81-D 'ornate' teardrop.
Pic taken July 2007.

There are quite a few runs of 3 or 4 with teardrops still, this run quite near downtown.
Pic taken July 2007.

A closeup so you can see the detail of the dragon arm support, don't know what the tape marks are that the city has put on this arm. Most of the ones I saw had these marks.
Pic taken July 2007.

A random sight seen in a parking lot on Olympic- a GE Powerglow.
Pic taken July 2007.

These gas station fluorescent fixtures are a common sight all over LA, these ones spotted in the Randy's Donuts parking lot in Inglewood.
Pic taken July 2007.

This is possibly Manchester and Olive in Inglewood, and a shovel hat with an intact lamp- quite a rare sight. The two (later?) floods on top have not fared so well.
Pic taken July 2007.

This is possibly Manchester and Olive in Inglewood, and a shovel hat with an intact lamp- quite a rare sight.
Pic taken July 2007.

Another LED test, this is located near Long Beach airport, you can see this street from the 405 northbound (although I forget exactly where). There are 2 or 3 cobraheads, retrofitted with different light sources. The one in this pic has an LED module fitted by the looks of it, there is another cobra with (by the looks of it) a Sylvania Icetron induction lamp too. The experiment is not a big success, the light is really dim and the optical control is poor, probably because the optics of the fixtures were designed for completely different light sources.
Pic taken July 2007.

A sadly declining sight on LA's freeways- Silverliners and an OV-35(?) with glare shields.
Pic taken July 2007.

Still a welcome sight on many of LA's residential streets, these CD803 poles with an acorn luminaire on top are common, many still with series incandesent lamps.
Pic taken July 2007.

Update Feb 2017:This fixture has been removed.

It's worth driving down Sunset at night from Hollywood towards Malibu, just for this fine example. You'll find it as you pass from Brentwood into Pacific Palisades- the cross street is Westcove.
Pic taken July 2007.

A closer daytime look shows it to be a very old example of a series teardrop, with the insulator support. It's multiple wired these days, with the ballast on the pole at the side. If you go look it at night, you'll see it has a 400W clear mercury lamp...perfect. Long may it survive!
Pic taken July 2007.

Here's a great sight and something I'd not seen in the flesh before- Revere 'cat-eye' floods at a haulage company yard. It's just northeast of downtown LA, on Mission just near the 10/101 intersection.
Pic taken July 2008.

If you get the fullsize pic you'll see a 400W BT mecury lamp. The himast floods in the background are lighting a huge railway marshalling yard.
Pic taken July 2008.

The ballast box is the rather stylish casting in the middle, you can see each of these double fixtures has a photocell too. There are probably 8-10 of these doubles on the building.
Pic taken July 2008.

There are some single versions too, here's one (with perching bird) and downtown LA in the background.
There is one other one I know of, and this one I've seen working- it lights up the flags outside Inglewood City Hall at 1, Manchester Blvd.
Pic taken July 2008.

Lighting Here and There

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LA pics 2005-8 and newer

3.1 (14/10/24)