Baked bagel 11
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Tom
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| This perplexes me, the East Los Angeles Interchange was lit almost entirely by MV until about 2017! There were many shaded M-1000 lanterns surviving into the mid 2010s, and fco MV M-400a, 325, MSCL and MDCL lanterns spread throughout! There even appeared to be NEW MV installations into the early 2010s, with GE MSCLs with blue NEMA tags! Does anyone have any clue as to why it was this way?
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The classic lights of Canberra are few and far between, this just means that I get know each one better!
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WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
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HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!
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| I probably figure that it had something to do with series circuits being too expensive for an upgrade to high pressure sodium according to one local collector. Oddly enough, all those street lights ran on remote ballasts. Interestingly, many of the 700W H35 mercury vapor street lights on the freeways that survived into the 2000s ended up getting converted to 400W H33 mercury vapor and the smaller lamps threw off the optics and light distribution. I think another factor was due to Hollywood’s movie industry wanting to film old timey movies where the freeways were lit with mercury vapor.
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« Last Edit: April 01, 2025, 12:52:04 AM by WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA »
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.
DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.
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WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
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HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!
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Here is a photograph that I took of some of the GE M1000 street lights on the East LA interchange before they were replaced: https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=6272&pos=48&pid=239511 |
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.
DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.
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Baked bagel 11
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Tom
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| Huh, that's interesting that they ran remote ballasts. I can imagine that it would mess up the optics of a M-1000 sticking a 400w lamp inside!
That exact picture is actually what reminded me of the MV lights!
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The classic lights of Canberra are few and far between, this just means that I get know each one better!
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Econolite03
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Matthew E.
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| I also suspect Caltrans had/has wanted to widen or reconfigure sections of freeway leading to downtown Los Angeles for decades, so lighting upgrades and rewiring were potentially deferred on segments that were considered for improvements. It wouldn’t be cost effective installing new lights just to take them out and replace the them during a construction project, if that makes sense.
Freeway improvements are almost impossible or take several years in that area, as the traffic impacts and land constraints make it difficult.
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Baked bagel 11
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Tom
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| Oh yeah, I can see that. I still don't understand why there were NEW MV MSCL luminaires installed into the early 2010s.
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The classic lights of Canberra are few and far between, this just means that I get know each one better!
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fluorescent lover 40
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| It’s possible a contractor wanted the new lights to match when replaced and had old stock. Or they could’ve been obtained by a contractor from LADWP who actually installed new series MVs (both GE and AEL) as spot replacements right until the MV ban. And had those sitting around and removed the series ballasts. Just my thoughts.
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Baked bagel 11
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Tom
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| Perhaps, you know the white stickers next to the nema tags on the later Caltrans MSCLs? The newest MV installation that I saw there featured one of them. That makes me think that it was a Caltrans installation, though I could be completely wrong.
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The classic lights of Canberra are few and far between, this just means that I get know each one better!
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fluorescent lover 40
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| Did CalTrans put those stickers on the M-400s and 125s as well? The only lights that I know of that had those stickers were the M-400As and 325s. But if a light has one of stickers then yes it is a CalTrans installation. Can you post a link to the sticker MV GE?
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Baked bagel 11
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Tom
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So it turns out the particular new one that I was think of didn't have the sticker, but this MDCL did! https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0549466,-118.2105268,3a,15y,48.64h,131.77t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sjzhNE_bUAJjlQ32Yvpu-DQ!2e0!5s20150801T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-41.76769592716445%26panoid%3DjzhNE_bUAJjlQ32Yvpu-DQ%26yaw%3D48.639766471907016!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMyNS4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3DHere's the newest MSCL that I found. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0545323,-118.2119365,3a,15y,243.86h,157.84t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sOD14BsA3sDz773q09lgNyg!2e0!5s20140901T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-67.84226376620316%26panoid%3DOD14BsA3sDz773q09lgNyg%26yaw%3D243.85835517060727!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMyNS4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3DAlso, what do you make of this? https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0549036,-118.2110223,3a,15y,350.96h,166.52t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s9_zk0tfIQmiYVdr7AQZYlw!2e0!5s20140901T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-76.51729394656229%26panoid%3D9_zk0tfIQmiYVdr7AQZYlw%26yaw%3D350.96027877375127!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMyNS4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D |
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The classic lights of Canberra are few and far between, this just means that I get know each one better!
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joseph_125
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| I'm surprised the old MV equipment lasted for so long on the freeways in LA. In my area, the lights were changed from 700w MV and 400w MV to 400w HPS and 250w HPS respectively in the early 90s. The first conversion reused the existing 1960s and 1970s era poles and wiring. Starting in the late 90s and 2000s, the freeway lighting here was completely redone with new highmast poles, those were 400w, 750w, or 1000w HPS depending on the installation. Maybe the salt used here means stuff like poles and underground wiring doesn't last as long as it does in LA.
TBH the MV spot replacements make sense if most of the lights were still MV, it means you don't have to stock so many different lamp and luminaire types when you do repairs or group relamps on that part.
They should have used socket extenders when the 700w luminaires were converted to 400w, it probably would have made the 400w lamps work better in the larger optics.
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Baked bagel 11
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Tom
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| Interesting, I know Southern California is an ideal environment for preserving metals (there's a huge plane boneyard there), so that would explain why there are still so many 50+ year old poles. What model of luminaire and style of pole were used in Toronto pre 1990s?
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The classic lights of Canberra are few and far between, this just means that I get know each one better!
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