Restoring a Junked 1940's Railroad Lantern
57,414
Published 2021-01-28
The lantern has a beautiful maker’s mark five-point star on the lid along with “Star Headlight and Lantern Co., Rochester, NY”. The Star Headlight and Lantern Company started making lighting equipment way back in 1889 and still make lighting for emergency vehicles and other handheld applications today. This hand signal lantern model was patented in the late 1950’s, so I estimate this particular lantern was manufactured sometime in the 1940’s or 1950’s based on the “patent pending” stamp as well as the 6V battery I found inside that was produced in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
This lantern is stamped with “B.&O. RR”, which means it was owned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (yes, the very same B&O Railroad from the game of Monopoly!).
Brakeman hand signal lanterns were used before 2-way radio communication became standardized. A brakeman could signal from the very back or front of the train all the way to the other end just by holding the lantern up and making certain motions with it to indicate things like ‘back up’, ‘slow down’, or ‘stop’. The original lanterns were lit by oil or gas, but eventually switched to batteries and bulbs.
The electric brakeman lanterns have three modes – off, signal mode, and flashlight mode. The flashlight mode operates when the bulb located inside the concave reflector housing is illuminated. In signal mode, the other bulb was switched on and provided a wide angled light beam for signaling purposes.
Timestamps:
0:00 – 1:08 Overview
1:09 – 10:50 Disassembly
10:51 – 11:26 Initial cleaning
11:27 – 13:27 Electrolysis/Evaporust/Wire wheel cleaning of lantern body and lid
13:28 – 14:04 Fixing the bent rims of lantern body and lid
14:05 – 14:19 Rough test fit of lantern body and lid
14:20 – 14:53 Evaporust cleaning small parts
14:54 – 16:27 Sanding and polishing small parts
16:28 – 17:37 Evaporust cleaning, wire wheel, sanding and polishing cage ring and handle
17:38 – 17:58 Painting handle
17:59 – 18:48 Repairing/gluing lantern body insulator disks
18:49 – 19:51 Making a new spare bulb holder
19:52 – 20:30 Sanding and polishing handle grommets and washers
20:31 – 21:00 Polishing bulbs
21:01 – 21:15 Painting switch arm insulators
21:16 – 21:36 Sanding and polishing switch
21:37 – 22:11 Nickel electroplating internal components
21:12 – 22:34 Sanding and prep of lantern body and lid for surface filling
22:35 – 22:54 Flashlight check for holes
22:55 – 24:19 Filling in holes on lantern body and lid with metal epoxy
24:30 – 24:29 Flashlight check to make sure holes are filled in
24:30 – 24:51 Sanding metal epoxy smooth
24:52 – 26:03 Applying surface filler and sanding smooth
26:04 – 27:11 Priming and painting lantern body and lid
27:12 – 28:09 Sanding, nickel electroplating, and polishing reflector base
28:10 – 29:01 Reconstructing bulb sockets via soldering
29:02 – 29:06 6V battery replacement
29:07 – 36:13 Assembling the lantern
36:14 – 37:25 Before and After reveal
37:26 – 37:48 Testing
37:49 – 38:21 Before/After photos
38:22 – 38:36 Thank you, please consider subscribing!
38:37 – 39:07 The Void
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Electrolysis tutorial: • Infinite Rust Removal? DIY Electrolys...
Some of the tools and equipment I used in this video:
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E10 mini bulb sockets: amzn.to/3xH6B7Y
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Instagram: @Catalyst_Restorations
All Comments (21)
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Beautiful work! You brought that lantern back to life!
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That was a riveting restoration! Sorry, couldn't stop myself. Still using your wonderful techniques on axe heads, but I'll be darned if I'm going to start restoring railroad lanterns!
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Nice work on the lamp. It really turned out great. A couple tips on soldering. Get some flux and apply to the joint being soldered. It will help the solder flow. Also, heat the parts being soldered and touch the solder to parts, not the soldering iron. The beading solder was caused by the parts not being hot enough. Again, great job on the video and lamp!
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Very nicely done ✔️ Thank you
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Very satisfying. Great restoration work and video! 👍🏻 Super relaxing to watch!🤟
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I looked up the battery, it’s from the General Dry Batteries company, a battery invented and sold by a man Diebel. With investors he opened the business in 1920, making these “internal zinc” batteries for rotary phones, automobiles and railroad signals, as the Great Depression came into status, the company soared, from 1937 to 1958 General Dry Batteries, mass produced dry batteries aka radio batteries for 50 different brand names and companies, your battery was from the late 1940s.
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I have 3 of these, my dad worked for the S.P as a switchman from early 50 untill his ret. in mid 70s. great vid
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Another beauty.
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That really looks amazing very beautiful work
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Beautiful restoration just stunning your very talented and was a pleasure to watch
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Great job!!!!
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Love your work !!! Great job restoring everything...I recently restored an old Hobo pocket knife on my channel last year, but you take the cake !!! I'll never measure to your expertise !!!
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Love the blue! Good job my friend!
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Top job mate!
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Wow, a great job. Like your restauration. All thumbs up. Regards: Alex.
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Looks great but I noticed you put the springs outside of the handles on re-assembly. I really enjoy your videos.
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Amazing 👏
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Great job my friend I just subscribed to your channel keep more coming I’m from nevada
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I'm glad you were able to fix that disc of what appeared to be Bakelite. I love the stuff and it kills me to see it break. The whole product looks great! Subscribed!
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Very nice... the can turned out perfect. And I never thought of J.B.Weld... interesting.
