Reply to "Railroadiana Items In Your Collection"

I have 4, a track side junction box, a day target for a switch stand, a badly damaged 2 aspect signal, and a railroaders flashlight from the 1920's.  When I was working down in FLA 36 years ago, I had the option of taking a dirt road to a microwave site that paralleled the Southern RR from US HWY 301 at the Crawford intersection where the SOU and SCL crossed, to Moniac Ga.  I found the day target and the junction box stuck in the mud in the ditch that ran along side the Southern tracks.  I cleaned up both, but the junction box got some fancy paint, and mounted to a wood base using 4 cut off RR spikes, again from the SOU line, that I drilled so screws could hold it down from the bottom.  I had hoped to put a lamp in the target, but the inside of the lenses is coated with silver to make them reflect at night  and you only get a couple pixel size holes of  light though them.  The SCL took down a massive set of block signals near the Crawford diamond and just left them in the woods along the right of way, where they lain for years, with pine trees and underbrush intertwined amongst all that steel and cast iron.   So, retrieved this badly damaged by vandals signal, the door latches were broken off, and the lens and lamp holders broken out.  It is all cast iron and weighs a ton.  Before I had a 4WD, I used to put it in the bed of my 2WD pickup in the winter so I could get traction in the snow, NC not FLA.   It is under my shed next to my 3 pt tractor crane and log tongs with a 4X6 used in the bottom to hold it up.  Has a birds nest in it right now.   I have a new set of lenses for it and hope make new lamp holders and restore it one day.  The flashlight my wife got me for a present of few years ago.  A standard 6 volt lantern battery fit in it just fine, like they did years ago, and I still use it.

I forgot one, the fifth one was another gift from my son.  A Russian candle lit lantern.  I don't know if it had colored lenses or clear, from the movie 'The Train'  I saw one very close to the same design that had clear lenses so put in some clear glass.  It has a small latch wire you move up to open the front to light or change the candle.  What is interesting is the date stamped in the vent cap, '1954'.  So, in 1954, the Russian apparently were still using candle powered lanterns.