The Museum's small collection of railroad lanterns & lamps span the many different railroads that Locomotive #137 traveled.. Lanterns also had different coloured glass to indicate different meanings. Typical colours used were clear, red, green, amber and blue.

Lanterns

For railroad crews of yesterday, lanterns were an essential item. Lanterns were used by railroad workers to communicate various signals at night. A Switchman and Railway Guard could "talk" directly to the Engineer to move the train as necessary with a simple wave of his lantern. Most of our lanterns are "trainmen's lanterns", meaning that they were used by railroad crewmembers. Lanterns tend to be classified into three categories. The earliest were the "fixed globe" lanterns manufactured from the 1840's while a more versatile removable globe lantern was developed in the 1860's. This finally evolved into the "tall globe" style of lantern which took interchangeable globes. Around 1914 the development of a third lantern style, the "short-globe" style was being used which took smaller interchangeable 3 1/4" globes. These were manufactured until the late 1960's when railroads completely phased out the use of kerosene-fuelled lanterns.

In addition to trainmen's lanterns there are also "conductors' lanterns", used by conductors in passenger service and "inspectors' lanterns" which were used for inspecting trains in terminals and yards.

Adams & Westlake "#250" short-globe lantern

Lamps

 Lamps are distinguished from lanterns by their construction. Usually constructed as a solid metal cylinder, lamps had one or more lenses used to transmit light from an interior source. Most lanterns in contrast however, are essentially a metal "cage" containing a translucent globe that protects the light source.

Many types of lamps were used in railroad service. Marker Lamps, which were hung on cabooses to indicate the rear end of a train, Semaphore Lamps, which were used in signaling, and Switch Lamps, which indicated how a switch was to be set. Finally, Classification Lamps hung on a locomotive to indicate the class of the train. Depending on their function, lamps could have a single, or multiple lenses, and some lamps had lenses of different colours.

Generally lamps were painted either black or "safety" yellow. Although the railroads phased out combustible-fuel lamps years ago, many collectors and organizations find time to restore and proudly display them, in their homes, offices and of course, museums.

Adams & Westlake semaphore lamp


Adams & Westlake "No. 270" Marker Lamp