I found myself in possession of a couple of really nice railroad lanterns after a friend of the family died.  He had been a devoted collector of railroad memorabilia and even had an entire room that was filled with all things trains.  He had started by collecting model trains but then moved on to things like lanterns, signs, artwork and the like.  Anyway, the family asked me to give them an idea of what the collection might be worth.  That led to lots of research and a realization that some of this stuff is really valuable.  I didn't end up selling it for them.  As far as I know they kept the room as a sort of memorial.



photo credit: Mike Miley

Railroad lanterns are a much sought after collectible that remind us of the days when railroads touched the average person in a much more personal and direct way.  Nowadays, you might be inconvenienced by waiting for a train to cross your path occasionally, but in general, most of us hardly even see them anymore.  People have their own reasons for collecting railroad lanterns.  Some people see them as a tie to the past and collect them for the romance of the time when steam engines played such a big part in every day life by moving people and everyday necessities from place to place.  Personally, I just think they are very attractive.  If I were going to have a railroad room, I'd definitely want a couple or a few of them.

I found an excellent resource for learning about all things railroad at railroadiana.org.  They give a very in depth description of various types and specific models of lanterns and you can tell that the site owner is a serious collector.  You should visit for a more comprehensive explanation of railroad lanterns, but in general I learned that there are five basic types of lanterns that were used by railroad workers.  Inspector's lanterns, fixed globe lanterns, tall globe lanterns, short globe lanterns and conductor's lanterns.  Lanterns differ from lamps in part because lanterns have those beautiful glass globes and contain fuel that is burned.

Personally, I really like the colored globes.  These are one of the items that I look out for at garage sales not because I want to sell it, but because I'd really like to find one at some amazingly low price.  So far, no luck, so I can't say that I recommend looking for these at yard sales unless you are very patient.  I've seen exactly two of them over the past few years.  They were at the same location and they were out of my price range that day.


Here is a video showing off a bunch of railroad collectibles...