The Parking Light thing

[Stan 386]

Arrrhhhh,that brings back memories! How many of you can remember the time when you used to have a light by each parked car overnight? The male members of the family would put a little paraffin oil lamp by each car as it got dark and collected in the morning..The police were pretty hot on checking too.

[Frank 13]

Dad upgraded to one of them fancy red and white lights that you hooked on to the side window and then you ran the wires under the bonnet and connected it to the battery with crocodile clips.

He was dead chuffed not having to light the parrafin lamp - until the next morning when the car wouldn't start cos the battery was FLAT

[Limey 240]

Arrrhhhh,that brings back memories! How many of you can remember the time when you used to have a light by each parked car overnight? The male members of the family would put a little paraffin oil lamp by each car as it got dark and collected in the morning..The police were pretty hot on checking too.

Dad upgraded to one of them fancy red and white lights that you hooked on to the side window and then you ran the wires under the bonnet and connected it to the battery with crocodile clips.

He was dead chuffed not having to light the parrafin lamp - until the next morning when the car wouldn't start cos the battery was FLAT

Hey - I went one better than that and bought a little red/white light that screwed to the door pillar of my A35 - then was wired to a switch on the dash! Of course they promptly changed the law so I rarely used it!

[Froggy 3]

I remember the days of the parking light too. Those paraffin lamps were dangerous. The old man eventually bought a light that hooked onto the window and clipped onto the battery. I guess it was visible a split second before you drove into the car.

[Ashley 288]

might have got this wrong, but wasn't there some law re ok to park without lights if within so many feet of street lamp?

[Cliff Ton 10,007]

This thread brings back big memories. My dad had a motorbike and sidecar in the late 50s/early 60s and he always used a paraffin lamp next to the bike on the street at night. Incredible performance to light the thing and fix it up outside. Whenever I get the smell of paraffin these days, it reminds me of the evenings in the kitchen when he was filling and lighting the thing. Like others have said, those lamps were useless when it was windy; but it says a lot that I don't remember any occasion when the light was knocked over/vandalised/pinched by kids. It was always still there the next day.

might have got this wrong, but wasn't there some law re ok to park without lights if within so many feet of street lamp?

I'm not sure about that because ours was parked literally under a street light

[poohbear 1,358]

There were phone books in phone boxes too...imagine that nowadays? :tongue:

[Ashley 288]

what's a phone box?

[Fynger 841]

You had to ask

[Fynger 841]

And Mobile Phones are older than you think

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I3O_qa82RA&feature=player_embedded

[Froggy 3]

Even cigarette machines outside shops all night were safe in those days.

[Ayupmeducks 1,728]

We as hams were using HT's ("handi Talkies") before cell phones were invented. Many repeaters had auto dial facilities linked to them, all we needed was the codes to punch in from the key board, then punch the keys on the HT to dial the number.

Didn't a lot of council road works lamps "walk" during those days too.... My Dads red lamp looked an awful lot like a council road works lamp.....

Back in the 50's we still had a lot of gas street lamps too!!! Once a week the feller on a push bike with a short ladder would check the lamp and wind the lamps clock up, clean the glasses etc.

[Cliff Ton 10,007]

Back on the subject of my dad's motorbike and sidecar, the sidecar itself was basically a plywood box on a pram chassis

Like this Sidecar

There was no security or locking on the thing - just a door handle. These days it would be burning within a few minutes of it being left unattended at night. But we had one for over 10-15 years outside on the street (with it's paraffin light) and never once had any trouble connected with it

[denshaw 2,825]

I owned 3 Lambretta's and a few motorbikes, none of them needed a key to start them. Never had one pinched either.

[Beefsteak 304]

A Carlton resident , who lived not far from Piggy and Babs and carlton girl owned a Triumph?? with a coffin as his side car!!

[littlebro 233]

The clip-on parking lights were sold by Sedan and Sabre but were outlawed in about 1971.

After 1971 a car should have 4 lights on if they are needed at all.

The current legislation is:

Parking at night

You MUST NOT park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space.

[Laws CUR reg 101 & RVLR reg 24]

All vehicles MUST display parking lights when parked on a road or a lay-by on a road with a speed limit greater than 30 mph (48 km/h).

[Law RVLR reg 24]

Cars, goods vehicles not exceeding 1525 kg unladen weight, invalid carriages, motorcycles and pedal cycles may be parked without lights on a road (or lay-by) with a speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h) or less if they are

•at least 10 metres (32 feet) away from any junction, close to the kerb and facing in the direction of the traffic flow

•in a recognised parking place or lay-by

Other vehicles and trailers, and all vehicles with projecting loads, MUST NOT be left on a road at night without lights.

[Laws RVLR reg 24 & CUR reg 82(7)]

[plantfit 7,205]

Just to bring this back to the parking light thingy, I remember the paraffin lamps that was put at the side and to the rear of motor cars because on our way home from either the boy scouts or the cubs in about 1962/3 we used to blow the lights out and run off, anyway on one particular occasion we got caught and was suspended from the scouts/cub for a full three weeks, big punishment in those days, didn't see it as much of a crime then but I suppose it could have caused an accident, so if anyone on here had a parking light blown out on a Tuesday night on Summerwood lane Clifton in either 1962 or 1963 please accept my sincere apologies and rest assured I was punished.

Rog

[Beefsteak 304]

I've just remembered something we used to do with those old paraffin lanterns, carefully take the burning bit out of the housing, tip it slowly upside down and put a brick either side so that it was being heated by it's own flame , and then go and sit a little distance away and wait for the "Fun" part.

Do you want to know what happenend ??

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Well do you ??

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That's right Nothing.!! Eff all !!

We were so convinced that once the paraffin boiled, the gas would come out through the wick hole under great pressure and ignite itself , then whoooooooosh home made rockets!! I guess we got fed up of waiting after an hour or so and it was then time to go to bed!!

[btb11 0]

My dad had his paraffin oil lamp nicked from beside the car one night, so he had to replace it, only that one went as well a few days later, he said he was going to put another out unlit and fill it with petrol, telling us kids 'that'll teach the boggers', mum wouldn't let him though and so he got one of the clip-on electric ones instead.

[majoroak 0]

all these paraffin lamps so called were if im correct called 'hurricane' lamps

[VWGolf 20]

I recall the paraffin lamps and having one for my Hillman Imp, parked on Sneinton Boulevard. There was a chain on mine that went round the back bumper. More than a few times I came rushing out to work in the morning and drove off, dragging the lamp behind me, making me even later because I had to stop and unchain it!

[The Pianoman 1,484]

As CliffTon suggested, here the thread is revived.

I keep putting this on Ebay but no one wants it It's a genuine Lucas one.

[ger 20]

I remember people moaning because they had to put the paraffin lights out at night (I bet they cost a bob or two now, if you can find one). I equally remember Clive Buxton had a younger brother, Lee, he was a teenager working at Players. He went to work on his motorbike in the dark and ran into an unlit skip parked on the road and it killed him, about 50 years ago, so it was good the police were tight on people who didn't bother

[JCBRAD 0]

I remember putting one out in the road next to my car in 1970

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Paraffin hurricane lamps are still readily available, I have one hanging in the back garden burning citronella oil.