Anyone into old lanterns? ( The Sequel Part 8, Finale 3 - One For The Railroad )

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Just restored Doug's Lantern, one for the road, so to balance my display or round it out, I just did one for the Railroad.

Got a deal on this lantern, about $45, because it is not embossed with any railroad identification in the metal top ring. Those sell for well over $50 and can exceed $100 depending on condition.

The globe on this one is marked CNX but to the best of my knowledge from searchin, this was a mining company which most likely used trains to move their product out of the pit area.

It came in good condition. Somewhere in its history I think it was dunked into a 5 gallon pail of thick, orange paint and then later covered over with dark brown. Most of the paint was gone when I got it but the wire joints and metal deep channels and bends still had the orange paint which was quite visible. Molasses did a good job of cleaning up the lantern (there wasn't much rust) and it did soften the paint. The brown was gone but the orange remained.

Started to use a dental pick to clean out the orange from the wire joints. It came out like window putty. To time consuming so went with CitriStrip. That got rid of 95%. Still some deep in the metal joints but the highly visible areas are back to just tin. I left all of the paint on top of the fuel tank for posterity (can't be seen when put together) on some of it on the inside of the globe and tank mount areas.

Two wires needed to be soldered where they came loose from the air tube and one or two other seams were reinforced with some new solder. Quite an easy restoration except working about all those wires, many very close to flat metal, took a lot longer than anticipated.

This was the lantern that had 16 holes in the bottom of the fuel tank. Two coats of POR-15 sealed it well. Did the normal finishing with 0000 steel wool, a coat of 33% BLO in Mineral Spirits and then a thin coat of RenWax.

Filled it with fuel and lit it this morning. It's only a 1/2" wick so it does not cast that much light but can be seen for quite a distance. To light the lantern, the fuel tank has to be rotated about a 1/2" to free it from the lantern and dropped out the bottom. Once lit, the burner on top the fuel tank is put back into the lantern and rotated 1/2" to lock it in place. Same thing to extinguish the flame. The top is opened only to remove the globe for cleaning.

I was curious as to the lantern movements used to signal the engineer to move the train and came across this really great, old text book showing the lantern, flag and semaphore signals used are many, varied and complex. It was written sometime between 1988 and 1922 and today totally replaced by a radio of some sorts.

     http://www.rgusrail.com/manual/baker_fpi_1/baker_fpi_1.pdf

It turned out well. The newest patent date on the top rim is 1910 so the lantern is about 100 years old. This is an early version with all metal wires supporting the lantern from the metal base ring. Newer lanterns uses two metal like legs to attach and support the air tubes to the base ring. This lantern also has the older flat sided fuel tank. Newer tanks have vertical ridges which make turning the tank with wet, cold hands easier.

These old lantern played an important part in this country's history and while impossible to ever find out, it would be interesting to know who used the lantern where and when to do what. The untold history of a small piece of equipment used to build this country a long time ago.

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Very Nice!

[Pourme]

Nice lamp, John.....

[RotarDad]

John - Great stuff, once again!  What is the reason for the wire frame with the lantern being a completely separate assembly?  Is that an older design, or railroad-specific?  I don't remember ever seeing one like that before.  Thanks!

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John - Great stuff, once again!  What is the reason for the wire frame with the lantern being a completely separate assembly?  Is that an older design, or railroad-specific?  I don't remember ever seeing one like that before.  Thanks!

It's an older, maybe first design.

To the best of my knowledge, the wire frame has three purposes, protect the globe, protect the fuel tank and allow maximum visibility.

The lantern is quite light in weight without the burner/fuel tank and globe. It is nothing more than a face mask for the tank and globe. Even with the globe in and a full tank attached, it is still quite light. This is a cold blast lantern in that the hot fumes escape throught the chimney and fresh air enters through the air tubes at the top and into the burner chamber below the globe plate to feed the flame.

I would think each engine would have several lanterns and spare globes of different colors and clear along with fuel and spare burners.

A hot burner can not be refilled. A spare burner could be quickly lit and put into a lantern frame for a near instant refill just like changing batteries in a flashlight. After 5 minutes of being lit the top lid and burner would be very hot and not allow changing the globe or opening the fuel tank.

The top pops off by moving the retaining loop past the wire frame and lifting up. It is really not possible to light the lantern from the top.

As for the tank/burner, the only way to refill it is to take the burner off of the tank. It's done by removing the tank assembly from the lantern. The burner is then rotated counter clockwise about 90° until the notches in the burner plate line up with the brass loop hooks attached to the tank. The burner is then lifted out of the tank mount and the tank refilled through the burner mount opening. The tank is closed/sealed with the burner by reversing that process.

It's quite a simple process to drop out the tank and either light or blow out the wick and to put it back in. When putting it back together, the round wick adjuster slides up through the big opening in the side of the lantern as the two small pins on each side of the tank slide up into upside down "L" grooves so when all the way in, the tank is turned about a half inch to hold it in place. There is a brass spring on one side that keeps one pin from moving, keeps the burner from accidentally dropping out when in use.

These tank/burner assemblies can also be used like a candle when not in the lantern frame for light, heat, cooking or whatever. That's probably why more than a few Vesta lanterns being sold on eBay do not have their burners. Someone took them out long ago for such use and never put them back. King of like a Sterno pot or a Bunsen burner. You can buy just the tank/burner assembly but alone they run $30-$40, just like hard to get phone parts.

As for the CNX designation, it is not in any way related to mining or a specific railroad. CNX was the brand name for a heat resistant glass made by Corning prior to the invention of Pyrex glass. The Corning "CNX" logo is attached below.

It was very expensive to have a specific railroad logo or name embossed in the globe so most globes are not embossed but the railroad name is then stamped into the tin top rim. Dietz bought their globes from Corning Glass Works of Corning NY in large quantities so they were able to have the Dietz name, and in the case of my globe, the word Vesta embossed in the glass. The opposite side of Dietz has the CNX Corning logo. As such, this lantern came with an original Dietz Vesta globe, not a modern reproduction.

This is what I found about "CNX" glass used on all railroad glassware from 1909 forward.

"The next big development in the Corning-Style globe was Corning's patent for the familiar "Cnx" trademark in 1909. According to a 1981 letter from Corning to the Key Lock & Lantern editor, "The CNX trademark is an abbreviation for Corning NONEX. NONEX preceded Pyrex among the various trademarks Corning registered with the U.S. Patent Office. Both trademarks were used concurrently, with NONEX predominating on railroad glassware." Although Corning's exclusive patent to this style of globe eventually expired, they apparently retained the lion's share of the market, judging from the number of "Cnx" globes that show up today. Corning referred to this globe as a "#39 globe" and according to the letter, "It became less widely used between 1920 and 1930 as the shorter types [of globes] became standard with most railroads; however, some 39's were made until about 1950."

So, that's more than anyone would ever want to know or need to know about a Vesta railroad lantern.

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This is the newer model Vesta. It has two stronger metal struts (red circles) attaching the air tubes to the bottom wire ring and the fuel tank is "pleated" (yellow circle) so one could get a better grip on it with oily, wet or cold hands.

I looked long and hard to get the all wire struts older version and finally found one that was parts complete and in good condition.