When did they stop using kerosene lanterns on the railroads? I’m sure they where gradually phased out over a number of years, but kind of curious as to when they made the major switch over to the battery powered lanterns. I’ve seen old photos from the 1940’s of trainmen using electric, but I have a Dressel kerosene lantern that is marked for Penn Central. Almost positive that was some kind of “presentation” item though. I’m talking about the hand lanterns used by railroaders and not the lamps you would have seen on cabooses or switch stands, etc.
Hey SDR_North, thanks for the very informative answer. I also found an interesting article about the Adlake Kero lantern that contains information about the last railroads to buy these lanterns for use in railroad service. http://www.railroadiana.org/pgLanterns_AWKeroTwo.shtml
SDR_North [:)]
You have provided some good railroad history here. I love railroad history. [:D]
Thanks all for providing it and the links. [:D]
I have seen photos of Kero lanterns on Maine Central switch stands in 1974.
I guess in 1975 they were phased out as yard illumination rules were changed to use just tagets.
Boy those were sure a classy touch.
Yah. WHen have you ever seen an electric lamp look as good as this.
If the img doesn’t show
I don’t know when the last person may have used a kerosene lantern but the caboose or waycar on the Chicago & North Western had Aladdin kerosene lamps in them untill the eighties when they did the last rebuild on the cabs I think to bring them up to the last FRA standards. Least the ones I worked had em. 
Okay, after seeing the photo on stmtrolleyguy’s answer – how do you tell a railroad lantern from a plain old farm lantern if there’s no RR name on it? I’m just a former farm girl who milked many a cow by lanternlight and those lanterns look the same as what we used.
In the photo you saw I believe the lantern on the right is a farm type lantern and the one on the left is a Dietz Vesta, which is a railroad lantern. The tubes on the sides are what make it a “hot blast” lantern, and most railroad lanterns did not have that feature. Here’s a link that can explain it much better than I can. http://www.railroadiana.org/pgLanterns_Barn.shtml
Thanks, jarubel, for your answer. I’ve learned a lot from your information and link.
The red one isn’t a railroad lantern. The other one is. Most railroads used “railroad” type lanterns (like the silver one.)
One of the most distinct features of a “Railroad” style railroad lanterns (regarless of lantern maker) is the heavier construction (thicker side frames), and cage around the globe. These features allowed better protection for the globe and the frame. RR lanterns needed to be stronger and take a little more abuse.
They also have one other feature that makes them different. When signaling to reverse in the dark, a lantern would be swung in a circle perpindicular to the tracks. Railroad lanterns need to keep working upside down while being used to signal. (This is accomplioshed I think by a tight seal to keep the oil in the tank, although I’m not sure, and I’ve never tried it with a burning lantern for obvious reasons.)
An axample can be found here
http://www.thortrains.net/handtalk.htm
It is a Dietz vesta, from 1942. No RR markings.
The details are a little more obvious here
http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo=200508220112318839.jpg
and
http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo=200508220109144708.jpg
If you note the drawings of lantern signals in railroad rule books it is obvious the lantern is not turned upside down when signaling like an electric lantern is. I worked with an old conductor who was bound and determined to leave the marker lights and spare kerosene lantern in the caboose supply locker in better shape than when he got on board. If you were his brakeman you got to learn from him how to dismantle the different types and brands of lanterns available and how to clean them up and trim the wicks. After a bit it was fun to make everything like new again. One night he suggested I should signal with the kerosene lantern in case my Conger battery went dead. So out I went with a freshly cleaned and lit kerosens lantern. All went well but the last move involved me relaying a large back up signal to the engineer. All my signals prior to that were ahead or stop signals. All was well until I wound up for a big back up signal and when the light went above my head the lantern went out. I could hear the conductor laughing in the weeds and I knew I had been had. He brought me a match and I got the lantern relit as he explained to me why the pictures were drawn the way they were. We finished the move and I don’t think I ever used the kerosene lantern again except to hang behind a crippled car trailing the caboose. I wouldn’t be surprised the conductor learned about lantern signals the same was as he taught me.
Okay, shows what I know. I’ve never actually seen someone signal with a lantern, and never knew that. Just out of curiosity, how did you light the lanterns? I take the globe out, light the wick, and quickly replace the globe before the lantern gets too hot. I would think in reality the whole burner assembly would be removed from the lantern frame?
The hand lantern for signalling did not have a removable burner. It was built into the base. The marker lanterns for the caboose had a removable burner assembly which you normally removed to light if I remember correctly. Now trainmen always had a pair of mittens close by so the heat or the burner was not a problem. The signal lantern came with three globes, the white one for signalling or to mark an occupied outfit (gang) car if you left it on a siding or back track, a blue one to mark cars that carmen might be working beneath such as repacking a journal or rerailing a car and a red one for signalling while flagging, marking the end of the train if a car was attached behind the caboose or for marking obstructions on the track such as a bridge washed out or a slide across the tracks. The wick was lit with a match.
In 1981 I was dating a girl who’s Father was an engineer with the Maine Central in Waterville, Maine (I grew up in Waterville). One evening, he showed me around the big yard in Waterville, and I noticed that the switch lights in the yard were almost all kerosene lamps, with bullseye lenses.
on a related topic,I have heard we once had a trainmaster who initiated an investigation to find out why we used so many more lantern batteries at night…
In 1961 I visited a relative in Boise Idaho at Christmas time. The whole street was decorated with Christmas lights and Kerosene Rail Road lanterns. They even had a couple of young people dress up as lamp lighter’s to light them each evening. The railroad lanterns were surplus from Morrison-Knudsen’s railroad construction business when they replaced them with battery lanterns.
dd