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Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 14892 Location: Keynsham
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:47 pm Post subject:
Andy_P wrote:
I'd always thought they were left off when the signs weren't in use because the film would run out too quick
But are they even film now?
They do LOOK like old-fashioned Gatsos. If they were digital, wouldn't they look smaller and neater like Monitrons?
Does anybody have any views on the idea of somebody climbing up there to put new film in when it runs out? Say three cameras across a gantry, one flashes and uses film, the other two don't - maybe it's just lane 3 with all the speeders, so its film runs out quickly. How quickly? How long does a film last? How do they know when the film runs out? (I'd always thought they simply changed the easy (ground level posts) cameras film on the basis of having a look to see if it's full, then over time getting an idea that it lasts maybe a week, or a day, or a month, so go look/change at those intervals?)
Surely the recent ones must be digital? Some of these gantries just don't lend themselves to regular climbing and film replacement - haven't we always believed that the M42 cameras, for example, have no walkways (the gantries are triangular frames, with the pointed edge at the bottom), so camera work would require lane closures? Considering the times when those limits are activated, you'd think they would run out of film in hours, not days or weeks? _________________ Dennis
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:55 am Post subject:
DennisN wrote:
Surely the recent ones must be digital? Some of these gantries just don't lend themselves to regular climbing and film replacement
I think you're probably right. I'll get my coat!
But to salvage SOME credibility... Didn't the first Gantry Gatsos appear quite some time before the first digtal cams like Monitron were around? _________________ "Settling in nicely" ;-)
Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 14892 Location: Keynsham
Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:13 am Post subject:
I dunno, variables have certainly been around for a very long time now.
But I'd have thought they wouldn't have introduced them until they had digital - y'know, they have some means of communication to send out the speed limit signal, why not include the feedback signal. I mean, the way we hear some cameras are cash cows, I'd think they'd need a full time steeplejack (or three) to keep the M42 in film!
Looking at one of the M42 gantries on Streetview last night, I could see a secondary light outside above/between each box (I think). Maybe those are similar to the ones in the article linked by M8TJT, albeit not 10 metres in front?
Maybe average speed Gatsos were only introduced when digital came out?
Having said all of which, this article denies my theory, saying they are film! It also says they do 70mph when no limit is posted. I can't see any indication of the age of the article. _________________ Dennis
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 2:15 pm Post subject:
Nice article, but as you say, probably a bit out of date now.
There's a clue right near the bottom that it was probably written in or around 1995.
Interesting to note though that certainly at one time they WERE using film, so they would have had to go out and replace the film cartridges periodically.
I did like this comment:
Quote:
The glass over the camera, flash and radar apertures is bullet-proof (although presumably not paint-ball proof).
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