Collectibles: An extremely rare set of 1930’s SGE Traffic lights 82cm long by 35cm wide SGE (Siemens & General Electric Railway Signal Co) manufactured traffic lights for British roads from the 1930’s until they were replaced by the one piece Mellor design, manufactured by Plessey, GEC, and Monitron in the 1970’s. The first SGE traffic light in the UK were trialled on the 5th of November 1927 at Princess Square Wolverhampton and was so successful that lights were permanently installed in October 1928. Although these lights were of the American one piece design, SGE decided to revert to the individual adjustable light design such as this one for British roads. These lights, once a familiar sight on British roads, would have originally been painted black and mounted on a black and white pole, the heavy cast iron head has 3 lights with individual adjustable aspects courtesy of ball and socket type joints giving them the appearance of bowls on stalks. This design from SGE was also used for the first vehicle - actuated road signal system in Europe which was installed at the junction of Cornhill and Bishopsgate in London. In appearance it resembled other singling systems already in use at the time with the familiar red, green and amber lights, the dissimilarity was the inclusion of a rubber mat set into the road at each approach to the junction which subsequently reduced the long needless delay of the “fixed time” system. The traffic passing over the rubber matt compressed the detector tube giving an increase of pressure which operated the contacts of the pneumatic contractor. None of these early SGE lights are in use on public roads in the UK today. A few are in use in private hands such as the East Anglian Transport Museum, and a set are working at Dover Castle. The last remaining set on public roads located at Rewley Road junction in Oxford was removed in 1999. Once replaced by the newer Mellor design all the old SGE lights were exported to Malaysia and Singapore. This set are now restored and re-wired with individual on/off switches for the green amber and red lights and also supplied with a custom made wall bracket.
Collectibles: An extremely rare set of 1930’s SGE Traffic lights 82cm long by 35cm wide SGE (Siemens & General Electric Railway Signal Co) manufactured traffic lights for British roads from the 1930’s until they were replaced by the one piece Mellor design, manufactured by Plessey, GEC, and Monitron in the 1970’s. The first SGE traffic light in the UK were trialled on the 5th of November 1927 at Princess Square Wolverhampton and was so successful that lights were permanently installed in October 1928. Although these lights were of the American one piece design, SGE decided to revert to the individual adjustable light design such as this one for British roads. These lights, once a familiar sight on British roads, would have originally been painted black and mounted on a black and white pole, the heavy cast iron head has 3 lights with individual adjustable aspects courtesy of ball and socket type joints giving them the appearance of bowls on stalks. This design from SGE was also used for the first vehicle - actuated road signal system in Europe which was installed at the junction of Cornhill and Bishopsgate in London. In appearance it resembled other singling systems already in use at the time with the familiar red, green and amber lights, the dissimilarity was the inclusion of a rubber mat set into the road at each approach to the junction which subsequently reduced the long needless delay of the “fixed time” system. The traffic passing over the rubber matt compressed the detector tube giving an increase of pressure which operated the contacts of the pneumatic contractor. None of these early SGE lights are in use on public roads in the UK today. A few are in use in private hands such as the East Anglian Transport Museum, and a set are working at Dover Castle. The last remaining set on public roads located at Rewley Road junction in Oxford was removed in 1999. Once replaced by the newer Mellor design all the old SGE lights were exported to Malaysia and Singapore. This set are now restored and re-wired with individual on/off switches for the green amber and red lights and also supplied with a custom made wall bracket.
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