While the lanterns have been mostly converted to LED and some of the nice looking 1960s lanterns have died out, I notice Glasgow still retains hundreds of lighting columns that are either converted tram pylons or over six decades old similar to ones in these photos on Flickr, with cables suspended between each column, which is becoming rare in built up areas of England.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@ ... otostream/
Glasgow street lighting
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Re: Glasgow street lighting
Glasgow in the past ran a combined street maintenance and transport department, which has been a long time going. The tramway standards and street lighting columns came out of the same depot, and often one seems to have been reused on the other, including new streets with secondhand columns. Likewise the overhead supply cables (another Glasgow feature) were maintained by the same tower wagons which did the tram, and trolleybus, wires. Trolleybuses could need many more standards than tramways, as they had double the weight of wire to support.
Snow clearance was another combined task, and Glasgow, again uniquely, used to keep on old buses with a snowplough mounted on the front. Trams used to be sent out with small trailers from which a labourer shovelled salt.
Snow clearance was another combined task, and Glasgow, again uniquely, used to keep on old buses with a snowplough mounted on the front. Trams used to be sent out with small trailers from which a labourer shovelled salt.
Re: Glasgow street lighting
I always wondered why housing estates built away from the tram lines like Easterhouse often used these columns, or how some ended up on streets built after the trams ended in 1962. They still look good, along with the cables, and are a big selling point for Glasgow for me. It beats the soulless lights you see in many English cities.WHBM wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2024 21:21 Glasgow in the past ran a combined street maintenance and transport department, which has been a long time going. The tramway standards and street lighting columns came out of the same depot, and often one seems to have been reused on the other, including new streets with secondhand columns. Likewise the overhead supply cables (another Glasgow feature) were maintained by the same tower wagons which did the tram, and trolleybus, wires. Trolleybuses could need many more standards than tramways, as they had double the weight of wire to support.
Snow clearance was another combined task, and Glasgow, again uniquely, used to keep on old buses with a snowplough mounted on the front. Trams used to be sent out with small trailers from which a labourer shovelled salt.
Re: Glasgow street lighting
Combined transport and highways maintenance departments by onetime Glasgow city council - old bus used as snowplough
When the trams and trolleybuses were withdrawn Glasgow seems to have very carefully extracted for reuse all the redundant standards that held up the wires. Must have kept them not needing to restock lamp columns for years afterwards. I can't recall if they had ones with the city crest on them.-
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