I recently purchased some old railroad flares at an auction last week for $7.50. I am trying to sell them and would like to sell them for at least double that. I alo understand that I’d have to sell locally too due to the volitile nature of the flares, but I do know several Flea Market dealers who would love to get their hands on them. Do you think $15 is a reasonable price?
These were built by Standard Railway Fusee in NJ and are dated for 1975.
The age of the flares makes them rather hazardous. I’m not sure that selling them is such a good idea.
He has BOE credentials to handle them in the first place? They should be properly disposed of, not handled or sold.
Rather in the same class as carbon tet fire extinguishers - neat to look at, but the contents - that’s another story.
Excelent Advice.
About 50 years or so, ago. Fusee’s were common item in a lot of trucks, and on railroads as well. They were carried in metal holders or jammed into any convenient opening that would ‘hold’ them. They generally became unusable, simply as a matter of time- some got wet, got heavy stuff laid on them, the nails brok out of the bottoms, etc. Of course, they got used up pretty quickly in railroad usages.
Now days, in trucks they are simply reflective lenses in metal bases that allow them to be set out when required for marking some event. Many Highway Patrol units carried them in their trunks, and used them to mark accident scenes. Became problematic when gasoline or vapors flowed in those circumstances.
Not sure of all the current uses required by raillroads. Been quite a while since I’ve seen them dropped within the gauge of a rail-highway crossing.
I would think that 40+ year old fusees would be a very problematic thin4gk to be totomg around in ones vehicle, or in a closet at home…
I have seen fusees carried in a cardboard box of the right size that was secured to the gate at the rear of a coach. A small boy who was riding looked into the box and exclaimed. “Look at the dynamite!” I did not disilluion him.
I agree. But hey, it could be worse, he could have bought torpedoes instead…
I saw a lantern at a flea market with torpedos wrapped around the bottom. The vendor tought they were weights. I told him that they are hi explosives. He put the lantern back in his van and was going to dispose of them. They are not play things.
[?] Mudchicken, are those torpedoes still used by the railroads??
Fusees came in three colours.
10 min. Red and Yellow. 5 Min. Green on a dowel, which was used for signalling.
The Red and Yellow had a spike on bottom end which was intended to stick in a Wood tie, lit, when dropped from moving train which had no ‘Tail End’ conferred by Train Order and/or was travelling slow account Unit trouble, poor rail etc.
Fusees were usually ‘stored’ in a specific locker in Caboose, usually in factory cardboard case of Fifty? along with Torpedoes above on special shelves. Often coal oil cans with spouts for filling markers and lamps were thrown in there, as well. The markers, when not on outside bracket on corners of Caboose, Green to sides and ahead, Red to rear normally. ( The Engine crew could look back at night, if train not too long on curves and weather clear, and see if Caboose end was following. The Caboose was often in darkness at night, if Conductor was finished his paperwork, to improve night visibility looking ahead for sparks in train. The Markers, when not in use, were tossed under oven extension of Mc Clary coal Caboose Stove ahead of Cupola Lockers )
The Red-Painted Metal Flagging Kits on a Chain held 8 Red Fusees, Track Torpedoes and a Red Cloth Flag on a staff.
A whole OCD Chapter could be written on Cabeese Life back in the day. And SLACK. )
Anyway. The Yellow Fusees, when lit, would burn underwater if carefully inserted.
Fusees were often left at Hand Throw Switches by Engine to advertise it’s location for Caboose when Lining Back.
Fusees were used to start fires in Winter, and thaw almost everything.
A burning CASE of Fusees could be seen on the MOON!
When burnt right down, the nail and wood stub were left, and caused flat tires all over the Property.
The Primer for igniting same would have a danger potential.
One could open fusee and dump out ‘agent’ inside, but igniter would still remain, which
Another use for fusees: I have seen one tossed into the air at night by one of the rear end crew to tell the engineer that the rear has passed a crossover switch and he can stop the 180 (or so) car train and back over onto the wrong main to get out of the way of a passenger train.
Should have added: THey are in a contain, an old container used for Electron tubes.
It does not appear to me that fusee composition dangerously degrades, forms peroxides, segregates like dynamite, etc. with aging.
The composition has already been engineered to be stable over long storage duration and to exhibit very controlled slow burning.
Where I see the concern is that the actual fusee composition, if it is from the Fifties or later, may be so stable that lighting it off requires some sort of special igniter or initiator that provides the right kind and duration of strong flame – the job that the taped-on matches do for homemade fuses – and this part might decompose with age. I’d be concerned about whether banging or bumping that part of an ‘aged’ fusee might cause easier inadvertent ignition – in which case all the fusees you have in the electron-tube package will go off sequentially, and fairly rapidly too, with the general result described by NDG. Probably with the evolving plume carried to a considerable height above wherever the container is…
I see the issue of selling these a bit differently from others here, perhaps. I’d no more peddle these as ‘collectibles’ than I would pistol cartridges I found in a box at an estate sale – or boiler wash balls as laundry detergent. Fusees aren’t cute little railroadiana like switch locks or employee timetables; they are chemical devices of particularly dangerous characteristics for accidental “deployment” inside a home.
On the other hand – if you can find a greater fool to buy them, this is America. If I were you, though, I’d put together some sort of legal disclaimer for the buyer to sign, acknowledging all the risks and relieving you of any liability or ‘implied warrantability’ whatsoever, before blithely selling them on at a train show or wherever.
Yes, in selling, I would worry about the liability coming back to bite. I suspect that the fusees would be easy to sell at a substantial price. But the buyer will most likely not be interested in keeping them as historical artifacts.
Instead, the likely market will be all about mischief and horseplay. As has been mentioned, the liquid slag released during burning is very hot. I have never gotten it on my skin, but I assume that it might stick to skin and cause third degree burns.
The railraod fusees that I am familiar with had tubular cardboard handles as an extension of the burning portion. They were used just like a hand lantern to pass signs day and night. Typically they were used for that when distance or fog rendered hand lanterns insufficient.
As has been mentioned, tossing a burning fusee high in the air was a sign. As I recall, it had more than one meaning.
You do realize you can go to most hardware/big box store and buy road flares for a buck or two, right?
Unless these fusees have the metal spike or are green or yellow, I somehow doubt the OP is gong to get much for them. I mean - they are just road flares. No big deal.
My yard sale addicted sister once gifted me with a box of fusees of unknown age and dubious pedigree. I passed them off to a local hazmat - EOD disposal firm. Into the burn pit…
Chuck (former USAF Disaster Control specialist)
The fusees we carry on our locomotives are short burn - maybe 5 minutes. If we use them, odds are it’s for night flagging of crossings, where you don’t want a long burn.
That’s not something you’ll find in the trunk of your local state trooper or on a fire truck - they go for the 20 minute variety.
Ours are 10 minute. We use them for mostly the same reason - backing down industrial tracks at night, or lighting up crossings we may have to block temporarily for switching moves. That’s why I doubt there would be much value in older red non-spiked fusees. They are basically road flares - just shorter.
Now there was the time we found some torpedos in an engine. That was fun.