Nostalgia & History > Questions about these items

I have 3 lanterns here.
#1 The left Red globe one is a UP one and so is the middle clear globe one. The Red right one has no RR markings on it. Are they all Brakeman lanterns?

#2 This is what is left after somebody cut the top part off this UP light. Was this used in a caboose or in the depot someplace?

#3 I see my flash made a bright spot in the upper top half. In the upper left corner it has the name, Westbound, with a small Green bulb below it. To the right of that in the corner it says Eastbound, and the bulb is broke so don't know the color.
In the middle of it, it has a switch on both sides, that works up and down and says Trainorders in the middle between the switchs.
Below that it says Crawford,a siding that was East of Geneseo on the MOP line thru KS and on the right side it says Bushton,a town West of Geneseo. Now both of these names have small White bulbs under them. This is on the MOP line that ran between Herington and Hoisington, KS. Is this some kind of a tester, maybe to test the signals? upkpfan

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These are 3 Copper plates that came off the Santa Fe line West of Lorraine, KS.

The top number on the left two are MP numbers I believe. #28 on left one and #9 below it. Middle # is 59 with #7 below it. I think these are MP numbers on top and the bottom # is the number of the drainage structure running under the track because there was either a bridge or a tube of some sort to carry water under the tracks..

Now the 3rd plate is #29 with 163 below it. This one threw me a curve. What would this mean? Thank you for any info you may have. upkpfan

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The first two lanterns from the left are Brakeman's lanterns. The 3rd one is what we called a Farmer
's lantern. A real RR lantern would not let you fill it from the outside.

The red lantern on the right is from a utility or street dept. It's not railroad. The globes are almost the same but not quite, you can get rid of it. The other two are railroad, and can be marked or not, better if they are.

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And the lanterns were used by everybody for everything. Trainmen, Conductors, switchmen, flagmen, "herders" switch tenders, part of engine flagging equipment, depot operators kept them for flagging, track dept and B&B used them, they were also used for blue lights too.

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Dennis,
Thank you for the info. upkpfan

#2 is a caboose light.(The top of the chimney loop has been cut off). They had a tall chimney called a "hurricane chimney" and were usually mounted over the conductors desk. I know they used them up into the 70's before the "crummies became electrificated". I used to work the caboose tracks at Albina as a laborer and one of my jobs was to "Go clean and fill the hurricanes!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/14 19:31 by patd3985.

upkpfan Wrote:
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> #3 I see my flash made a bright spot in the upper
> top half. In the upper left corner it has the
> name, Westbound, with a small Green bulb below
> it. To the right of that in the corner it says
> Eastbound, and the bulb is broke so don't know the
> color.
> In the middle of it, it has a switch on both
> sides, that works up and down and says Trainorders
> in the middle between the switchs.
> Below that it says Crawford,a siding that was East
> of Geneseo on the MOP line thru KS and on the
> right side it says Bushton,a town West of Geneseo.
> Now both of these names have small White bulbs
> under them. This is on the MOP line that ran
> between Herington and Hoisington, KS. Is this some
> kind of a tester, maybe to test the signals?
> upkpfan

The top unit is a train order signal controller. The bottom unit is an O.S. When a train would enter the circuit, the direction light would come on and the bell to the right would ding.

Bob

This black box set in the depot at Geneseo. It was a device to let the operator know, when a train was coming towards Geneseo.

The white lights on the bottom were circuit lights. When a train would hit this spot, the white light would come on and a bell would sound.

Some of the older semaphore train order boards were replaced with a two lighted train order board. It would have a green light and a red light. Geneseo was a manned train order station 24 hours every day. The order boards should remain red at all times.

When a train hit the circuit, the operator could call the dispatcher. He would ask the dispatcher if he wanted to deliver any orders to the train. If the dispatcher said no, the operator would change the order board to green in the direction the train was running. So the switch would change the light to green or red.

The other lights were on the board letting the operator know where the train was.

It sure looks the photo was taken inside the depot at Geneseo. You can see part of the bell on the right of the photo.

I was through Geneseo in late March. Every thing of any value has been removed from the depot.

I did notice that there were bricks in the ground. I do not know, what happen to the original depot. The pre-fab depot is still standing.

Maybe some can answer if the old depot was torn down, or vanished in a derailment? What year was the pre-fab depot built?

There was a passenger train that came from Wichita to Geneseo connecting with the Colorado Eagles. This train was pulled off around 1959 or 1960.

Gary A. Rich
Aurora, CO

I would agree with bnsfBob. If Geneseo still had the old semaphore train order board, there was probably a electric motor connect to the board. The lights on top should be green, the middle lights should have been blank on the train order board, I never saw a train order board have anything other than green or red on it. The bottom set of lights would be red. The operator could move the switch and set the order board up for the oncoming train.

Honestly, I never saw many order boards that other lights on them telling the operator where the train was. So every one please dis-regard about what I wrote about having other circuits detecting where the train was.

Thanks Bob for clearing this up.

Gary A. Rich
Aurora, CO

Thank you guys for the info. That is very good. upkpfan

The lantern in the middle is the older style "Adlake-Kero". Sometimes they had a date code stamped around underneath the font holder part. The one on the left is the newer style, I think they changed over to that type thumb latch in the 1960's, and for some reason after that, they dropped the date code. Those were made into at least the 1970's and maybe later.

Marv, it looks like you've got the correct answers from these fellows. I agree with Dennis on the lanterns, all three. Also agree with Pat on the UP caboose lamp. I can't understand why anyone would cut the top off, but sometimes anything goes. These did have the hurricane chimney, nothing like the chimney of an Aladdin caboose lamp with the mantle. If you recall the picture I posted to you sometime ago of the snow train wood caboose taken at Ellis back in the early 1960's, it had one of these lamps mounted to the wall near the conductors desk. Gary and Dennis sounds correct on the train order controller. I also, never knew of the MP having these signals with other than red and green.

Now for the AT&SF copper marker plates. I've seen these before but never understood the markings either. You know more than I if the top number is the milepost number. As for the bottom number, I'd have no idea. I wondered about 39' rail lengths as a position, but there would only be about 135 per mile. I've seen some similar plates on the LaJunta Sub. here but always thought they dealt with signal circuit identifiers of some type. Possibly Evan Werkema who is a AT&SF guru would have some good input here.

upkpfan Wrote:

> The top number on the left two are MP numbers I
> believe. #28 on left one and #9 below it. Middle #
> is 59 with #7 below it. I think these are MP
> numbers on top and the bottom # is the number of
> the drainage structure running under the track
> because there was either a bridge or a tube of
> some sort to carry water under the tracks..

Santa Fe System Standards v.1 p.27 describes bridge numbering and standard sign No.72, which as of 1963 consisted of a stamped copper plate like the ones you have. "The upper line numerals on the Bridge Number Tag indicate the mile post location of the bridge; the lower line numerals indicate the location in decimal fractions of a mile, from the mile post. The decimal fraction of a mile is expressed to the nearest tenth of a mile, except that where two or more structures are located within the same tenth of a mile, these structures shall be numbered to the nearest hundredth of a mile. In the same manner, the decimal fraction should be extended to thousandths of a mile, etc. where it is necessary to avoid duplication of bridge numbers." So these could be tags from bridges at miles 28.9, 59.7, and 29.163. We would need the actual bridge record for this line to be sure bridges existed at those MP's.