My Visits: Dave's Lighting Meet 2025
In October 2025, I was honoured to be invited along to my first lighting meet (and the largest in the country by that date) hosted by Dave The Lighting Guy. It was an event-filled day, and we each bought along some of our own lanterns to show off while also having a look at some of Dave's. I would like to give a special thank you to Dave for extending the invitation to me, and hosting an amazing meet. I would also like to thank AgentHalogen_87 for taking me (and my lanterns) to this meet - I bought my two rarest lanterns to showcase. And these (along with many of Dave's and other collectors) went up briefly on the short column to have their moment in the spotlight. One of these is pictured below, my P350/4 for ES 125W MBF/U lamps. With the daylight and opal bowl, it did take a while to notice whether it was actually running (and as a result we did miss the brief pink section of the MBF/U warm up) but eventually the emerald green began to fight its way into view.
A Beta 9 was next up to be installed. They were incredibly light-weight, weighing 1.93kg for the remote-geared examples like this one. It is fitted with an 80W MBF/U lamp.
With such a clear bowl, the arc tube within the lamp could easily be seen.
A few minutes later the Beta 9 was fully warmed up:
An ELECO GR501 running a 36W SOX-E lamp was the next lantern to go up.
This is the earlier type of the GR501 which features a bowl-ring as opposed to having the bowl fitted with a hinge.
The golden glow of the SOX lamp gave some colour to the bland background of this image:
Whilst the next lanterns were being prepared for their mounting on the column, a Phosco FL321 floodlight had shown up in the pile of lanterns and spares for people to take from. It came with a mounting-plate, as well as a 70W SON lamp. This was the first time I'd seen this design of floodlight in person, and so I decided to take some photos of it.
On the ground just outside the shed was this Philips W4326 bulkhead with an 80W mercury lamp inside. This style of bulkhead was incredibly popular for industrial and marine applications.
By this time, the two lanterns to be lit were installed on the column on a twin-arm bracket. To the right, a GEC Z8260, with the lamps positioned one-above-the-other, and to the left, an ELECO HW-727 with the lamps positioned side-by-side.
When switched on, just the GEC Z8260 lit, so it was theorised that a faulty tube or contact was the culprit.
Hilariously, the GEC Z8260 then refused to start properly, so the bracket was swung round to fiddle with that one as well. Being a cold day, the temperature may have had something to do with the struggling tubes.
After a while, both lanterns stopped acting up, and started.
The shed was a sight to behold - if I recall there is more than 400 lanterns and lights in there!
Many 18W SOX bulkheads had recently been installed on the walls and ceiling of the shed, providing a nice golden glow to the interior
The one on the left here (made by Crompton I believe) had a clear diffuser which made viewing of the 18W SOX lamp especially pleasant.
A true classic, a GEC Z5580 on its cast-iron bracket was next to be put up - but it was not warmed up and was put up as a visual demonstration. A Royce Thompson P42 two-part photocell is drilled into this one's canopy.
Next was an enormous GEC ZD10606 post-top, which oddly suited the short (~2m) column.
The warm up started, and the MBF/U lamp took a while to become visible. You can just-about see the emerald glow around the spigot here:
After the mercury warm up, the lantern was fitted with the equivalent SON lamp.
A Vectra X (Vectra fitted with an asymmetric reflector for pedestrian crossings)
This is one of the later-made Philips examples, dating to January 2014, as the sticker reveals.
I took the time to take a close look at one of these railway fluorescent fixtures, as I'd seen something similar at Stafford Railway Station.
An EKCO R1900/4 ballast is installed for each lamp.
The capacitor dates this luminaire to around 1962.
The "help yourself" pile had grown significantly by this point, and I decided to have a look around.
A number of fluorescent lights, concrete brackets, lanterns and spare parts such as bowls and ballasts were in the pile. A Simplex Gemini had also turned up from collector Alan - this wasn't on the ground for long before I claimed it!
A shiny Tamlite Tamcrest for 36W SOX-E/55W SOX was the next lantern to be photographed on the column.
While the column was being prepared for it's next lantern, I took the time to photograph some items other collectors had brought to show. Owned by collector Ben, this Z5670 series post-top was first - a true classic! It is the older version featuring an acrylic bowl and aluminium hat. The acrylic bowl gives it the huge benefit of not going yellow like my own example has.
The lantern is complete with a dome-refractor, and a 3-pin BC lamp-holder for the mercury lamp.
This was one of AgentHalogen_87's lanterns. You may recognise this from it appearing on his collection page. I had the opportunity to see it warm up here as it had been fitted with a plug on the end.
The column had been fitted with a top-entry REVO Lucidor B lantern by now, with a
Being remote-geared meant the lantern was required to run on an external gear. Dave has a very neat set up featuring many quick-fit gear-boards for the column. Here is the 35W SOX board:
A cut-off Thorn Beta 5 lantern was found on the ground near the shed, and this was too-good a comparison to miss! AgentHalogen_87 had brought an MI26 lantern with just a tiny touch of blackout paint on the bowl.
Near the Beta 5 was this disassembled Thorn Alpha 2 lantern - an incredibly rare acquisition if ever there was one!
During the meet, we all had the opportunity to sign the shed door, some signed with our names and some political statements!
