Got this from my friend Rick Shields. I'm not generally into HPS much, I may even get a CMH retrofit lamp to use in this one for better color, but I didn't have an AE street light so I thought it was a nice gift. It was used on top of a traffic light until an upgrade took it down.
Yup, I was intrigued because it was different from the mercs. Gotta be careful handling this tho, AEs are more brittle than GE and Westinghouse streetlights.
there is a strip center that is going to get demolish for a future wallymart. and it loaded with these. but this was also a City public service fixture of choice in the early 70s and 80s as i have seen MV and HPS. and these these seem to outklasting the GE street lights
@ Dave; how are these more brittle? Is the casting weak to begin with or does it corrode to bits after decades of service like Line Material lights do? I've always liked the ITT 25 and 13. I opened up Joe M's 400W MV ITT 25 (well one of them) and those ballasts are indeed large, though the one i saw was a normally small 240V reactor ballast lol. I have yet to see a ballast bigger than my M-400's 120X240V ballast in person.
I know my GEs and Westies are built very well. The M-250A seems a little better built than the M-400 though. I guess some "progress" took place between 1967 and 1973.
Fortunatly GE lights are still entirely USA made so the quality hasn't really gone sour but the older fixtures are simply built tougher. I held many of Joe M's lights and a person with no knowledge of lights whatsoever can tell and older light apart from a newer one because the older lights feel stronger than the newer ones.
The older lights also have a noticeably thicker cast than the newer lights. The M-400A and M-250A design is guilty of this. The bottom ridge of the top housing is a tad thicker than the rest of the casting. I guess GE wanted to use less metal but they did at least think of quality and made the bottom a little bit thicker to reinforce it. I noticed my OV-25's housings and especially the OV-10's ballast casing, are much thicker than my M-400's and M-250A's housing and doors. The M-250A has a much stronger reflector than the OV-25 and M-400 though. So does the OV-10 (well of course it does since it's supposed to be exposed to the weather). I find it funny how the M-250A's socket is enclosed by a cast aluminum case. It sure worked out much better than my M-400's felt ring would have. I didn't even have to wipe the inside of the reflector! The outisde was scrubbed clean of 40 years of yuck with a steel wool pad and it looks just as great as the inside of it now.
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The older lights also have a noticeably thicker cast than the newer lights. The M-400A and M-250A design is guilty of this. The bottom ridge of the top housing is a tad thicker than the rest of the casting. I guess GE wanted to use less metal but they did at least think of quality and made the bottom a little bit thicker to reinforce it. I noticed my OV-25's housings and especially the OV-10's ballast casing, are much thicker than my M-400's and M-250A's housing and doors. The M-250A has a much stronger reflector than the OV-25 and M-400 though. So does the OV-10 (well of course it does since it's supposed to be exposed to the weather). I find it funny how the M-250A's socket is enclosed by a cast aluminum case.