I know the Cooper/McGraw Edison UTR Traditionaire, GE TC-100, and American Electric 247 were commonly installed as MV or HPS fixtures for a long time (with common wattages being 175W MV, 100W HPS, or 150W HPS, or 50-70W HPS/100W MV in some regions that use a lower wattage, especially in residential subdivisions, etc. AEL and GE offered them with horizontal lamps, and GE had a vertical mount. They also made them in MH, though they’re relatively rare compared to the HPS or MV versions in most cases. In mh area, they seem common in condo complexes as 100 or 150 watt HPS.

I know they launched more post tops later, like the Cooper Lexington or the GE Salem. The Lexington became a quite common fixture as well, most commonly HPS or MV, but sometimes MH. The Salem was common in certain places.

Eventually, FCO post tops became a thing, most often LED, but they also made them in HPS and I think MH too. What do you think of those post tops? Do you prefer the FCO ones or the standard ones?

Just like with cobra heads, the coach style lanterns seem uncommon in metal halide compared to HPS or MV. MH was relatively common for acorn fixtures, though. I’ve likely seen MH acorns with the acrylic or polycarbonate globe even more than the HPS ones. I’ve seen more of the Holophane Granvilles in HPS but I’ve seen some in MH too.

American Electric 247’s made before 2008 I believe all used the arched tops. Those made 2008 or later didn’t seem to have the arched top. Some 247’s seem to have NEMA tags but some do not. In my area, it seems that they’re using FCO Cooper LED post tops to replace failed HPS ones in condo complexes. A few are not FCO, but most are

It seems that Cooper Traditionaire HID post tops often have refractors as panels. AEL and GE ones didn’t have that. All the LED versions of the coach style post tops seem to have the LEDs mounted in the roof of the fixture, even the Cooper ones, kind of like the idea of the horizontal mount TC-100 or AEL 247. Some variants of the Lexington also apparently used the horizontal bulb mount. I believe the newer GE TC-100’s had a slightly different hat design than the older ones did and the NEMA tags all were different. Somewhere in the 2000s, AEL made a copy of the UTR Traditionaire I believe.

The atomic style fixtures also became common (AEL Comtempo, GE PM series, GE P17M, Westinghouse Pinto, etc), also were quite common, also frequently running HPS and MV lamps.

Acorns are common as HPS, MH, and LED. Mercury vapor acorns seem very rare but apparently Charleston, SC used some acorns with blue NEMA tags (VERY unusual to find a NEMA tag on an acorn to begin with, but that means they were MV which makes it even more unusual), but acorns in Charleston seemed to have them. What is your favorite design of post tops? Of course we also have other designs, such as the RSL-350 (usually HPS if used on a city-owned street, but Cracker Barrel uses MH versions) and/or the New Haven and whatever that GE model was (GE made one that was similar to the Cooper). I’ve seen more incandescent acorns and globe fixtures than mercury acorns and globe fixtures. I’ve never been to Charleston, that is only based on images I’ve seen on Google Streetview,

McGraw Lawn-Glo fixtures I’ve seen many times (or fixtures that appear to be them) on people’s front yards with standard light sockets (ones with HID lamps seem very rare), as I’ve only seen them in standard incandescent, but I know they made them in 100W MV and 50-150W HPS and I think those came with mogul base sockets va the medium base on the incandescent fixture.

We still have quite a few post tops here.

Most of the Main Street or historical downtowns have the acrylic acorn post tops. These used to be all HPS, but they’re now LED. A few parks have them as well.

One neighborhood had tons of the atomic style fixtures throughout, I don’t know if these were HPS or MV at one point, but it was first built in the early 1970s, so if they were installed when it was originally developed and roads were built they were probably MV. There were a few different styles of them in use since there were various stages as it expanded and also spot replacements. A few years ago, they were all replaced with AEL Traditionaires in LED. However the little shopping center there still has some of the atomic style fixtures that haven’t been replaced yet.

I’ve also noticed that post tops in general are quite common here for residential use. Mainly the traditional style ones, I’ve seen them in MV and HPS, and some of them are even white instead of black. I’ve seen a few newer installs of them in LED too. I’ve wondered how these fixtures ended up in residential yards because as far as I know, none of the typical retailers sell them direct to consumer.

A few houses in my neighborhood had the atomic style ones in MV, but most of them are gone now. I only know of one or two left.

The LED UFO looking things have popped up at a few commercial properties recently.