I thought you folks might enjoy a couple of pictures of my great grandfather's signal lantern. I recently got it while cleaning out my Mom's house after she passed. It was in my grandfather's attic until my Mom got it back in the 70's. Still works. He worked for Frisco until he died. He was a German immigrant.
Enjoy,
Gordon

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better have that checked

Wow...that is neat. There's something about an old light....I like them all.

Nice old light, I was a Special Agent for 3 years and still have my Switchman's Key. Everything RR is collectible.

I wish now I had kept my light...My first job was with the CB &Q, not counting farm work.


WuzzFuzz

Several years ago we cleaned out a deceased cousin's home and found among other railroad items, 147 railroad lanterns embossed with the names of various railroads. The cousin and her husband both worked for the Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern. The auction for the railroad items alone drew buyers from 17 states. In a future thread I'll describe the 3 months work it took to clean the house out.

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Jim in Iowa

I guess I should consider my self lucky. I have a Railroad Telegraphers set and, it's in fairly decent shape. Have no Idea what it's worth.

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I Cor. 10:13 "1611KJV"

I have 2 that I got on craigs list, the red globes are very much like yours but the kerosene tanks are on the bottom and shaped like a regular lantern and are both Dietz, one is a night watch and one says number 40 traffic gard, both are made in Syracuse N.Y. These may not be rail road as there is no line name, both are about 9" tall. I am a sucker for the red lens. Jeff

I have an old signal lantern from the Southern Railway. It was given to me by the father of one of my best and oldest friends...he gave her one and gave one to me. He was a railroad guy back in the fifties and did retire from the railroad. Mine has been converted into an electric lamp.

My family on my dads side were railroaders from a long time back starting with my great grandfather. I have several lanterns that both my Dad and granddad used. I also have a lot of tools marked as property of the Rock Island and switchkeys for several roads. The prize is a Rock Island water crock from the old steam days. My granddad started railroading when he was 13 years old as a fireman of the DRG&W. He worked for many railroads and even serves in WWI as a military railroader in France. I have a lot of things my Dad left me that will get passed along someday.

I have been interested for years in railroad history especially the steam era.

My great grandfather on my mother's side was a German immigrant who worked on a railroad out of Bloomington IL. He passed when I was just a squirt so I don't know much more. Mom told me he used to get in trouble with great grandma for 'misbehavior' when he was down the line somewhere. He would buy grandma a bit of jewelry to make up and one of those pieces is my wife's engagement ring.

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Bob.
SWCA 1821

I've got New Orleans and Northeastern, Mississippi Central, IC, Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, Louisville and Nashville, Kansas City Southern and a couple of Southern RR lanterns, one clear and one red that have never been used. A railroad agent gave me the two Southern lanterns after I helped him clear up a box car burglary. This was back in the 70's and battery operated lights had been in use for some time. He found them in a warehouse near the railroad yard. I've got a few more but would have to dig them out to see what they are. I'm also working a deal on a caboose lantern.

Tap the question in to the set. The guy on the other end may know....

Was not a gandy dancer one who worked from hand powered railroad carts?

Try this one for starters. Telegraph Key Values

Then this one. OzarksWatch

Hello GT. I am originally from south central Mo. I used to have one of the lamps too. Your lamp is very nice looking.

When I was a kid Dad ordered several large things and to save trucking costs we picked them up at the Crocker, Mo Frisco terminal.

My wife and I went to an art event, in a large room they had RR items for sale, I bought a Frisco T-shirt and my wife, who's maternal Grandfather was an engineer on the KATY, bought herself a KATY one.

If it's the Frisco, MO, Cotton Belt, Leaky Roof Railroad I'm all ears.

I'll add a Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (D&RGRR) wrench I picked up on one of my thrift store hunts. Grandpa worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. His best job was as the conductor on the Salt Lake City to Las Vegas run when passenger service still existed. I love railroad memorabilia.

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Join the NRA today

I'm a sucker for a nice Dietz lantern but make sure you see Made in U.S.A. on it. Dietz started making their lanterns in China in the mid 1950s and 95% of the ones i run across at yard and estate sales are Chinese made. After a while you can pick one up and tell if it was Chinese made just by the feel.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

This really takes me back to seeing these lanterns in use in the 1940's. They always fascinated me, as did all things railroad-connected.

I have an old switch key somewhere, my only piece of railway gear. I envy you guys the lanterns and battery lamps, especially the former.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I had a few things from 'Rock Island' as I grew up there. Sadly while I was in the service they all 'walked'-- all I have now are sereral Linoel sets acquired many years later--- at 72 it is time to let them go. Many were never set up, but I have no idea how to market them or value-- Nice Light!

If I may expand a bit here on this thread about railroading and those lights.

As I said, my first job not on the farm was working in the classification yard at the central Illinois "Hump" yard...It was the C. B. & Q back then, better known as either the "Q" or the "Burlington" line.

Getting a job with a railroad, was the only way to go, since the railroad pensions were the thing to obtain, rather than S.S. I worked the nights, 11 to 7, so that's why I needed a light. My job was to walk the yard, and take down car numbers, and what track they were on...(If you think math was hard as a kid, you have no idea of what it's like to figure out what the track numbers are in the dark). From the list of cars on the various tracks, then it would be time to make up a conductors list for a train..West bound or East bound. Then the switcher would pull those cars, and again I would write down the car numbers, and then make up a train list.

Working nights in a train yard, for a young kid, would sometimes scare the Bejesus out of ya....Rats were everywhere...They'd scurry about, getting grain that had fallen from various cars...Hearing those little buggers, scurrying and sometimes squeeling...Well....

Cold in the winter...Damn it was cold out there, alone, with those sounds of the night.

Then there were the transits riding the rails...You never knew where they were, and if you came upon them, unexpected...It's a wonder I didn't have a heart attack at that young age.

Then there was the time a transit was found hanging from one of the box cars...Hard telling how long he'd been in there, but he was there long enough that most of of him had had slid down into his pants....(Not Good).

AH.... but the dream of a young kid to move up thru the ranks to be able to sit in the right seat....Never did happen though...I never even got to sit up in the cab of one of the engines.

The round house is still there, but they don't use it any more..The "Hump" yard is still operational. But the Bailey Yard out in North Platte, Nebraska..(Union Pacific, classification yard) That place is huge.


Good Lord, after I wrote the above, I got to remembering the time back then...Do you realize, they still had a ice house, for icing the the PFE, cars going East...PFE...Pacific Fruit Express...Those cars had the ends opened on top, to have large blocks of ice put in the cars to keep the veggies fresh, or meat, if it was coming out of Chicago. This was before there was the refrigerated cars. I remember there was a ice house in Omaha too. But it's long gone now too.

There were cattle cars, mostly with beef, coming from the west, going to Chicago, to the stock yards. Those had to be routed right thru...If they got delayed anywhere because of a break down on on a car, then that meant that the cattle would have to be fed and watered. Coal cars from Wyoming, going East bound. Those were always double headers.


Model 70,

The little track cars were usually just used for rail inspection..Sometimes just one man,sometimes two, or even three...They might have a small flat car pulled behind with some tools they might need...But it was just light maint...The "Gandy Dancers", were the ones that laid down the rails, and spiked them to the ties...You might see some of the old trains that had the living quarters being pulled. Those were for the Gandy Dancers, and other maint personnel to live in, while they were on the road, so to speak.

Next job after railroading, I became a bill collector....


WuzzFuzz

My lantern would have looked like this.

Vintage Empire No. 952 Railroad Signal Lantern Light Lamp

Back in the mid-fifties a friend that had more money than I did used to buy Mauser rifles and a Luger and a lot of shells that were not available in hardware stores, and when they came the Railway Express agent would call him and we would go and pick them up. Any thing that was heavy or a little hard to get like guns were shipped on the Railroad Express and the Frisco came through Rogers, they tore the depot down in the 70's, biggest mistake I think they ever made. Now the train is the North Arkansas& Missouri that runs on the old Frisco tracks. Jeff

Model70

Those little track cars were usually called "Speeders". Most were made by Fairmont. Had a little two cycle engine..Push start, to go forward. To go in reverse, stop then engine, get out and push the other way..Those two cycle engines could run in either direction.

Those things are collector items now. A lot of folks buy them and restore them, then put them on a flatbed car carrier, and take them to a meet. There's a large meet out in California of course, and a big get together each summer in Iowa...They're allowed to run on abandon'd track in some places....I see them for sale now and then on either E:Bay, or on Antique Engines, another site I hang out on...Old tractors, steam tractors, garden tractors, old lawn mowers, anything old with a motor and parts for sale.


Also, if you folks like trains, Direct TV on the RFD channel 345 Monday evenings 6 Eastern time. Re-run about 4 a.m Eastern time... Lots of railroad history, movies of the old steam engine trains,, sometimes the newer diesel electrics, Doodlebugs, or early all electric trains from back East.

I live for Monday evenings.


WuzzFuzz

Bell from S T L I M & T W C # 41 engine.
Dick

My wife's mother remarried after 20 years as a widow, and her 2nd husband was a retired Santa Fe conductor. He had a couple of lights, they both has 2 or 3 bulbs on the bottom, and were different colors. The color or combination of colors would tell the driver all was well or whatever. I assume they use cell phones now.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

my grandpa ( on my dad's side )was a fireman, then engineer for the Chicago&AltonRR (C&A RR), which became part of the Gulf Mobile & Ohio RR (GM&O RR)... when he passed away, he was still an engineer on it... years later it became the Illinois Central, which my oldest brother started on as brakeman then conductor.. it became the KC Southern RR... I have 3 of the old brakeman's oil cans, and several of the signal lamps...and only 2 switch locks...

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be safe,enjoylife,journey well

There are a lot of RR lantern collectors, and many lanterns are usually found listed on eBay. I have sold several there. There are also construction warning lanterns, such as would hang from barricades for street repair, utility excavations, etc. Similar to RR lanterns, and usually have red globes, but the fuel tank is larger so they can burn longer.

[QUOTE=WuzzFuzz;


Also, if you folks like trains, Direct TV on the RFD channel 345 Monday evenings 6 Eastern time. Re-run about 4 a.m Eastern time... Lots of railroad history, movies of the old steam engine trains,, sometimes the newer diesel electrics, Doodlebugs, or early all electric trains from back East.

I live for Monday evenings.


WuzzFuzz


Here it is Monday evening 6 :00 Eastern time...History of the Central Ohio RR..Steam engines....My kind of show.


WuzzFuzz

Found a Lucky Lite #7 in my mothers house when she died. All my relatives are farmers so no idea where it came from. Gave it to a friend who lives and breathes "O" gauge.