Full size printed plan Model Oil-burning locomotive headlamp (for desk, den or gatepost)
Description
Full size printed plan and article
No material, Plans only
VINTAGE 1948 PLANS REPRODUCED
Oil-burning locomotive headlamp (for desk, den or gatepost)
E.L. Hall. Company of Philadelphia
Full size printed plan on a 17” x 11” sheet
Three page article with building notes
SCALE 1 INCH = 1 FOOT
LENGTH 3”
HEIGHT 4”
WIDTH 2”
By D. H. JAMES
DOES anyone want an oil-burning locomotive headlamp for his desk, den or gatepost? Here it is! A rare item scaled down one inch to the foot to make a handsome and useful accessory for holding cigarettes or picture slides. (It will hold about 30 kodachrome slides or a pack of cigarettes it would be swell if some one would make one for the Editor's desk!) Or if you wish do the job in half or quarter size as a working headlight for the shop door or the Rail Gang's headquarters Of all collector's items recalling the garish yesterday of railroading, the oil burning headlight probably symbolizes the era best of all. Before its orange glare fled the Buffalo, and by it fitful beam, in gas lit melodrama, the heroine struggled against her bonds the villain sneered and Dauntless Harold raced the fast mail to the switch stand. Time was the headlamp brought a Technicolor thrill to the boy who hung out at the depot. From it he knew the train number and the nature of the train running behind it. Polished brass numbers, half a foot in height, stood silhouetted against colored glass side panels of green, red, amber or opal hue to distinguish the local from the fast express and the Red Ball Manifest from the work train hundred yards or so from the old CPRR rails she used to ride.
The original was made by the E. L. Hall. Company of Philadelphia and the date of manufacture is either 1873 or 1878. The lamp mechanism has long ceased to exist, but we haven't room for it anyhow in our inch-scaled model.
To obtain a highly effective gold-leaf effect, we will want to build our desk model of sheet brass, and before scribing a single line, we will want to burnish that piece of brass to a high lustre so that we won't have to ruin our paint job to bring out the "gold leaf" underneath.
Thank You for Looking