Urbis ZX1 Lantern Installations

The Urbis ZX1 was a side-entry-only lantern for use with 50W-100W SON-T. Most of the time the lanterns were fitted with sealsafe optics, meaning the bowl and reflector were one unit. Bowl-types included: flat-glass, curved-tempered-glass, deep bowl, and prismatic bowl. A zebra option was also optional for pedestrian crossings.

Burton-upon-Trent

These ZX1s light the platforms of Burton-upon-Trent train station, the closest pair running metal halide lamps, and the rest running SON lamps

The lanterns at night:

Tamworth

The ZX1 is used in the town centre's main carparks here! They (mostly) work, with the odd day-burner and blown lamp. But one caught my attention. This ZX1 was missing it's canopy! There is no way it still works, with the live wire exposed It's likely tripped the breaker, and the live in and live out to the photocell don't connect anymore.

It had been sitting there for over a year, so I decided to take it with me and see what state it was in!

The HL2 70LUX photocell and socket were ruined, but the canopy was in good shape minus one crack and some broken clips! I decided to keep it for spares and the photocell for a clean up (Sometimes I put photocells on lanterns even without them connected as they look better in my opinion). I also found a date code referring to April 1993, likely the date of manufacture for the lantern.

I returned several months later (on Christmas day) to find the lantern in a similar state. With my shiny new camera (minus the slight blur caused by the terrible rainy weather) we can see the 70W SON ballast poking out of the top. It looks extremely rusty, and no surprise! We can also see the water-level in the bowl creeping ever-higher. This installation is still damaged as of 18th December 2024.

I then proceeded to picture some of the other ZX1s in the car park. This one's mounted on a double-armed column, with a ZX12 at the other end! Nearly every ZX1 in this carpark (and the smaller carpark nearby) use a prismatic bowl to refract the light.

Since last time, I noticed several more lanterns fall victim to day-burning.

This ZX1s canopy is secured by a zip tie, presumably after one or more of the clips snapped. It likely day-burns due to water intake leading to a photocell failure.

Three day-burners exist in this carpark, this one's on a double-armed column.

The three day-burners can all be seen in the image below, can you spot them all?

A close-up of the Urbis ZX1 closest to the camera!

A close-up of the day-burner farthest to the right in the image.

Some flat-glass ZX1s are also extant here, running 70W SON.

On the 25th April 2024, I noticed that column 20 in the car-park opposite the disused police station had a damaged ZX1. If you remember the first example pictured on this page, it may look familiar... Due to poor weather, the canopy came loose and was now hanging on by the photocell connection as the safety strap had snapped.

The seal can be observed wrapped around the canopy.

From another angle, the ZX1's failed safety strap is seen. The snapped base of the safety strap can be seen just adjacent to the wires, the only reason it hasn't fallen down to swing on the photocell wires entirely is that the strap is zip-tied to them.

I immediately reported the wounded lantern and ensured that no one parked right below it, just in case. The first example on this page shows that these can fall off if not attended to! About two hours later, an MEWP van showed up with the means to repair the lantern. The canopy was clipped back into place, with some "complementary" zip-ties added for extra security! It was all in the nick of time, as a heavy downpour occurred right after.

In December of 2024, a large storm swept the country. I had already suspected that this may have resulted in damaged lanterns, especially the ZX1s. I spotted one with a free-hanging canopy in the car park outside of Tamworth Job Centre, and came back a few hours later to check on it again. The lantern's optic had since also come loose, hanging on the wires.

The wires and optic were hanging over the rear section of the lantern, and with the punishing weather, it wouldn't be long until the wires sheared off and the optic came to the ground. I reported it immediately, but it wasn't until the next day that a cherry picker was dispatched to deal with the situation. By that point, the optic had fallen off, narrowly missing a parked car and shattering on the ground below. The lantern was removed and Tamworth Borough Council were quoted for a replacement lantern.