Traction Engine Lamps

Back before the old king died, I started to build a 3" scale Fowler traction engine but, like so many projects, it fell by the wayside and I eventually sold off the parts that I had made. While having a bit of a tidy up recently, I came across these little lamps that would have been used on the engine. Not wanting to sell them on too, I decided to clean up the castings and get them working. Oh yes, they are designed to take a little bulb powered off one of those thin batteries. I've finished the main bodies and am now working on the tops. I know that they are not railway related but, interesting all the same.

Jon

 

All cleaned up now and ready for painting once they've had a good clean. I'll need some 1/16" x 1 1/8" brass rivets to replace the temporary pins and some glass lenses would be much better that these plastic ones. Not sure where to get glass lenses so, will try an opticians first.

Jon

 

What an interesting mount. I assume to prevent as much sloshing of oil as possible?

 

Trevor
Do you mean the sprung bracket? I think that they were all like that.

Jon

 

Yes, I meant the bracket.
Ive never seen an arangement on a lamp like that.
Any idea on what youll do with them?

 

Trevor
Not quite sure but maybe simply mount them on some brackets and fix to my bookshelves.

Jon

P.S. Any news on those tender springs?

 

I sent you an email a bit ago about them.

 

Let there be light!
Here they are, finished and with a little bulb wired up and lit. The lenses are still the original plastic type as not yet managed to get to the opticians to see about some new ones. I found some 1 1/8" long x 1/16" rivets and threaded them up 10BA. I then opened up some 12BA nuts and used these to hold the rivets in place. I'm quite pleased with how they've come out although, the photograph makes it look as if there is a very bright light showing when, in actual fact, it's not so bright. Now to make up some brackets .

Jon

 

I had had the batteries since about C 1985 and I had them tested by a chap and they showed full power. He did say that once they were put in use that they may run down very quickly. He was right, they did and probably 10 minutes at the most. I'll have to find some more.

Jon

 

What kind of batteries are they?
Perhaps whatever mount you make up for them can have a power input to bypass internal batteries and run on mains. Would make for a more reliable display piece.

 

Trevor
That sounds a little more than I wanted to do. I'll see about some new batteries just to see what they look like on full power.

Jon