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Roadkill Score: NGrid 10ft Truss arm Found this on the side of a freeway. A car had hit the pole and the arm fell off the pole. The reason the arm fell is because the weld joining the arm to the mounting bracket failed. So I will need to find a way to make new brackets for it and weld them in place where the originals were. This was on an aluminum pole so it had metal pole brackets but since I'll be starting from scratch, I will design wood pole brackets for this so I can attach this guy to a wood pole. This arm is quite impressive. The wall thickness of the pipe used to make this is 3/16" thick and the diameter of the top pipe is 2" at the luminaire end (it's oval shaped at the pole end; about 3" wide and 2" tall) and the bottom pipe is 1-1/4" diameter. There's some minor dings and scratches but other than that this thing is in great shape. Attached to this was the remnants of a 250W HPS GE M-250R2. The top housing broke into two pieces, leaving the reflector and capacitor on one piece and the ballast, ignitor, and terminal block on the other piece. The housing broke at the PC socket so the PC socket was loosely hanging by the wires on the portion still attached to the arm. The PC was a 2011 Fisher Pierce, missing the cover and circuitboard totally smashed. The refractor door was also nearby without a scratch on it. No glass anywhere though. The 250W HPS Sylvania lamp also survived intact. The fixture dates to 2012. I actually remember when the fixture and pole were installed to replace a knockdown. [url=https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7419621,-71.4726795,3a,75y,47.5h,83.18t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4GxoLL5QtDNiBJQtONGqwQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en] This is the location of the pole. As you can seen, back in 2011 there was no pole there at all. [/url] Not sure how long it's been laying on the side of the freeway but it was after October... I saved the door, reflector, lamp, slipfitter & bolts, terminal block, and screws from the fixture. I also set aside the ballast, capacitor, and ignitor to test those at a later date. The ballast has a broken spade terminal but other than that was not impacted. Ignitor and capacitor look fine too. Won't know for sure til I test though. The reflector was a little banged up but I beat the dents out. PC socket has a chunk missing but overall could still be reused. As long as a PC is installed in it, the missing chunk won't be a problem. the door doesn't have a scratch on it though. Amazing! My guess is that the door fell off right at impact and the arm probably took awhile to fall. First the top weld had to fail. Then the arm probably hung by the bottom weld for a short while before it let go and the arm and fixture dropped to the ground. The highway crew probably tossed the arm and parts against the fence away from traffic since it's property of the electric company, not the state DOT. Keywords: Miscellaneous

Roadkill Score: NGrid 10ft Truss arm

Found this on the side of a freeway. A car had hit the pole and the arm fell off the pole. The reason the arm fell is because the weld joining the arm to the mounting bracket failed. So I will need to find a way to make new brackets for it and weld them in place where the originals were. This was on an aluminum pole so it had metal pole brackets but since I'll be starting from scratch, I will design wood pole brackets for this so I can attach this guy to a wood pole.

This arm is quite impressive. The wall thickness of the pipe used to make this is 3/16" thick and the diameter of the top pipe is 2" at the luminaire end (it's oval shaped at the pole end; about 3" wide and 2" tall) and the bottom pipe is 1-1/4" diameter. There's some minor dings and scratches but other than that this thing is in great shape.

Attached to this was the remnants of a 250W HPS GE M-250R2. The top housing broke into two pieces, leaving the reflector and capacitor on one piece and the ballast, ignitor, and terminal block on the other piece. The housing broke at the PC socket so the PC socket was loosely hanging by the wires on the portion still attached to the arm. The PC was a 2011 Fisher Pierce, missing the cover and circuitboard totally smashed. The refractor door was also nearby without a scratch on it. No glass anywhere though. The 250W HPS Sylvania lamp also survived intact. The fixture dates to 2012. I actually remember when the fixture and pole were installed to replace a knockdown.

This is the location of the pole. As you can seen, back in 2011 there was no pole there at all. Not sure how long it's been laying on the side of the freeway but it was after October...

I saved the door, reflector, lamp, slipfitter & bolts, terminal block, and screws from the fixture. I also set aside the ballast, capacitor, and ignitor to test those at a later date. The ballast has a broken spade terminal but other than that was not impacted. Ignitor and capacitor look fine too. Won't know for sure til I test though. The reflector was a little banged up but I beat the dents out. PC socket has a chunk missing but overall could still be reused. As long as a PC is installed in it, the missing chunk won't be a problem. the door doesn't have a scratch on it though. Amazing! My guess is that the door fell off right at impact and the arm probably took awhile to fall. First the top weld had to fail. Then the arm probably hung by the bottom weld for a short while before it let go and the arm and fixture dropped to the ground. The highway crew probably tossed the arm and parts against the fence away from traffic since it's property of the electric company, not the state DOT.

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Filename:020817_001.JPG
Album name:Mike / Miscellaneous
Keywords:Miscellaneous
Filesize:786 KiB
Date added:Feb 08, 2017
Dimensions:2048 x 1536 pixels
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URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=21456
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lite_lover   [Feb 11, 2017 at 04:20 AM]
Nice score,a wood pole bracket for it would be awesome.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Feb 11, 2017 at 08:27 AM]
Haven't painted that T-111 yet? Laughing
streetlight98   [Feb 11, 2017 at 03:31 PM]
Thanks Darren! Yeah I'm glad I spotted this. Just have to find a way to fabricate new wood pole brackets and get them welded to this.

Andy: nope not yet. I'ts winter so I have to wait until we get some nicer weather. The day of this pic it was in the lower 60s and the very next day we got a foot of snow! We just got 2-3" more last night. Won't be getting out to the shed for awhile! That's why I stashed all my lighting goodies building up in the basement in the shed on that nice warm sunny day. My basement is basically a "waiting room" for new lights where they "hang out" after they've been cleaned before being moved to the shed. Laughing
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Feb 11, 2017 at 10:06 PM]
...Do they read other lighting catalogs and overhear elevator music in the meantime? Laughing
streetlight98   [Feb 12, 2017 at 01:45 AM]
There are some lighting catalogs down there actually! Though the only music they hear is rock and metal lol.
lite_lover   [Feb 12, 2017 at 03:18 AM]
It shouldn't be too difficult to design weld-on brackets. Or bolt-on brackets that have stubs on them to slip into or over the ends of the arm tubing and be able to put a bolt through the arm tube to secure the arm to the brackets.
joe_347V   [Feb 12, 2017 at 04:50 AM]
Yeah designing a new weld on bracket shouldn't be too hard. I also like Darren's idea of making a slip on bracket. Nice find lol.
streetlight98   [Feb 12, 2017 at 01:23 PM]
Yeah I was looking at manufacturer's mounting plate templates online (Lithonia was the only one who shows) and it looks like I could use 1/4" thick aluminum flatbar to make the brackets; 8" for the top one and 3" for the bottom one. The wood pole HAPCO ones here use one thru-bolt and two lags on the top one and two lags on the bottom. Though most don't have all four lag bolts lol.

I like the idea of a slip-on bracket too but I want it to look as authentic as possible. But I'm no good with welding and lack the tools to make the mounting plate brackets so this might be a project I hold off on.
joe_347V   [Feb 12, 2017 at 11:58 PM]
The MTO has pretty detailed drawings of their arm designs on their website. Here's a drawing of the truss arm which was updated in 2016. I'm sure there's some junior engineer there complaining about updating the drawing for an arm type that hasn't been installed in years lol.

The drawing for the tapered elliptical arm is also online.

I don't have a need for one now but if I ever do, I might make a detailed CAD of a 6' truss arm from the drawing and then send it off to a shop so I can have my own repro MTO truss arm. Very Happy
streetlight98   [Feb 13, 2017 at 01:50 AM]
Cool! This is how the HAPCO poles NGrid uses come together. Pretty similar to the MTO arms except that the top piece has four carriage bolts that have locknuts on the inside of the pole that are secured (the plate on the opposite side is just a cover for the hole used when two arms are attached to the pole; they use one pole and just bolt on the one or two arms before they install the pole). The bottom piece just has a conduit clamp type thing (or for two poles, you just bolt the two arms together and omit the clamp thing). The tapered arms mount the same way with the four carriage poles that attach via locknuts and washers on the inside of the pole. The arms are interchangeable on the poles.

For the wood pole style, I'd want to create brackets like you see here for an authentic look. Seems pretty basic to make with the right tools. Granted I don't possess the right tools lol. Just get the flatbar, cut it to shape, bend the curve of it to fit against the round pole, drill the holes, and weld it to the arm.
joe_347V   [Feb 14, 2017 at 09:04 AM]
Very interesting, The wood poles arms here use either the standard tapered elliptical bracket or something like the truss bracket but wider with 4 holes for lag screws. I haven't really seen the triangular style in your pic used here though. I suppose it's somewhat easy to replicate the design used here with some 1/4" thick aluminium plate or channel and a anvil lol. That being said, I think the arm manufacturers have a custom made extrusion die or a stamping die to make the brackets depending on the shape.

The MTO website has a lot more lighting drawings too, there's one on NEMA tag style and placement, sign lighting, sign lighting details, a table of fuse ratings for mercury lamps, and a very detailed drawing of a overhead sign truss. You can pretty much replicate all of the MTO's designs lol.
streetlight98   [Feb 14, 2017 at 05:28 PM]
Yeah the tapered arms NECo/MECo used here are pretty much the same. Here's a typical Narragansett Electric and Mass Electric tapered arm. (Also note how low down the light is!!! You could stand a 6ft step ladder in the bed of a pick-up truck to remove it lol). The 10ft ones are pretty much the same, just having a larger mounting base plate since the taper is 4.5" instead of 3.5". BTW that M-250R1 will have a 100/175W MV ballast, 240V with 120V PC. Here's a nice shot of the M-250R1 on the arm. It's mounted low due to the two railroad bridges (one is no longer used and not sure about the other).

Also, some older 1950s tapered arms in the Blackstone Valley Electric area (which originally held crescent moon lights from what I understand) use a triangle and look like this here. I love those really old 1950s tapered arms. They have a smoother bend at the top and the triangular plate looks cool. I don't believe NEES (NECo & MECo) used those older style tapered arms. If they did, it was in very small numbers.

Wow MTO has a spec sheet for everything! lol. Interestingly, their NEMA tag specs are nothing like they are actually. HPS uses yellow, MH uses just red (not fluorescent red) and they're not reflective at all.
joe_347V   [Feb 14, 2017 at 09:19 PM]
Interesting, those 50s tapered arms look pretty neat too. Seems a bit modern compared to what was used in the 50s over here. Back then we mostly had double guys and braced S-arms. The double guys were ofter paired with MV clamshells and S-arms with incandescent gumballs.

Yeah I like how the MTO basically has plans for everything freely online. Yeah the NEMA tag one is puzzling, the MTO as far as I know just use whatever tag the fixture manufacturer puts on the light. I haven't seen any like what the plan describes. Would be kinda neat to have a few MTO official NEMA tags made though.

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