JeffPo's Dressel Crossing Gate Lamp Page
Last update: 10/07/04
This is a railroad lamp made by the Dressel company. Lamps differed from lanterns in both form and function. While lanterns used globes surrounded by a metal frame, lamps were generally had a sheet metal or cast metal body. Lamps also used lenses to amplify the internal light source. Lanterns were designed to be portable while lamps were generally intended to be stationary.
The blue lens is on a sliding panel door that gives access to the burner inside. The burner and fuel font are nothing more than a glorified candle. The magic is in the lenses. And it needs to be seen in the dark to really appreciate how it works. I lit the lamp in a dark room and was surprised to see how concentrated and bright it made the beams of light. The "green" light was so bright it actually caused me to squint! Amazing and cool optical science at work.
This is a crossing gate lamp. It has a red lens on one side, and a blue lens on the other. It should actually have two red lenses instead of a blue and red. I guess someone added the blue lens to make the lamp more decorative. The crossing gate lamp was used to warn motorists of the oncoming train.
Incidentally, the "blue" lens actually casts a green light because of the yellow flame from the burner. This lamp doesn't have any railroad markings so there's no telling which railroad it was used on, or where.
These two images were done with the lamp lit, and the light beam directed straight at the camera lense. This demonstrates just how bright this lamp is, and this is with the flame turned down quite a bit.
For some reason, my cats
were fascinated with the lamp. I had to keep shooing them away to take
my images.