Railroad Switch Lamp, ca 1900 - 1940s
name: label: user
content: Michigan Central Railroad
label: maker
content: Peter Gray & Sons
notes: label: Description
content: This large, kerosene-fueled switch lamp, ca. 1900s-1940s, was placed immediately adjacent to the manual operating lever that controlled the position of a switch in a railroad track. The lever, operated by a brakeman or switchman, changed the position of the movable rails of the switch, aligning the switch for a train's movement from one route to another, or from a main track to a siding track.
label: Description
content: This lamp has fresnel lenses - two blue and two red. The crenelated top allows heat to escape from the burner. The body is embossed with the initials, "M.C.R.R.", showing that it was made for and used on the Michigan Central Railroad, a major part of the New York Central System.
label: Description
content: A switch lamp's position was mechanically interlinked with the position of the switch, so that the lamp automatically indicated which way the switch was aligned. When aligned for a main route or normal path ("normal" as specified in the railroad's employee timetable and/or standing instructions for that particular switch's milepost location), the lamp's green (or blue) lenses showed fore and aft; when the switch was changed to a diverging route or siding, the lamp rotated 90 degrees so that the red lenses showed fore and aft.
label: Description
content: Clearly, the safety of passing trains was dependent on the accurate indication of the lamp, if a derailment due to a misaligned switch was to be prevented.
label: Description
content: This large-size lamp is of a type typically used on principal tracks in railroad yards or on main routes in the vicinity of junctions or stations. The kerosene fuel for the lamp had to be replenished regularly by nearby employees. Electric lighting for such lamps became common in the 1890s-1900s along heavily used routes. But kerosene lamps were common into the 1950s along lightly used routes and in many rail yards.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
label: associated place
content: United States: New Jersey, Demarest
topic: label: Subject
content: Railroads
label: Subject
content: Safety
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Transportation, Railroad
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content: Work
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content: Transportation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1989.0687.01
label: catalog number
content: 1989.0687.01
label: accession number
content: 1989.0687
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lamp, railroad switch
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 17 in x 9 in x 9 in; 43.18 cm x 22.86 cm x 22.86 cm