Help with restoring a BR tail lamp.

[Clagsniffer]

Hi folks. I’m looking for some help/advice in restoring a BR lamp that I’ve acquired with a burner. 
 

For starters how does it work? I know it’s pretty obvious that it has a fuel tank and a wick that gets lit, but what is the little knurled wheel for? I’ve tried to turn it but seems pretty solid. I took the wick assembly off to look in the fuel tank and it’s full of gunk, so I’ll need to clean all that out. Can I get new wicks for it? Is it paraffin that is used as fuel?

 

I’ll be sanding it down and cleaning the outside of it, would a paint like hammerite be ok to use? Would that cope with any heat from the lamp? 

Here’s some pictures;

 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by Clagsniffer
Changed topic title

[Lacathedrale]

The knurled wheel would presumably push out or retract the wick

[didcot]

Yes its paraffin. You may be able to get a new wick from a garden centre or somewhere similar. They are similar to the wickes used in paraffin heaters. 

 

Winding the wick up increases the flame, likewise winding it down reduces it. Wicks do need trimming,  cutting of burnt fibres.

 

I would give it a coat of nitromorse paint stripper and a gentle clean with wire wool. Mine was tin plated so you don't want to remove the plating. Treat any  rust with Krust from Halfords. You may need an etching primer which Halfords do as a spray.  Hammerite is pretty good at higher temperatures. I did a steam roller chimney and smoke box with it. Check its compatibility with the primer. Hammerite needs second coating within a certain time frame or you have to wait for it to cure. That could be up to 4 weeks. Check the tin.

 

Good luck

 

[polybear]

Hammerite isn't a patch on what it used to be when Finnigan's owned it

I think ICI (?) may own it now, and it's gone right downhill.  Another option could be High Temp exhaust spray paint, which comes in all sorts of options.  The car restoration websites and forums may be a good place for brand ideas and opinions.

Do you want a squeaky clean restoration, or a sympathetic one?  Mind you, I imagine BR Tail Lamps don't feature very high on the value stakes....

[russ p]

I'd just give it a good clean and maybe a polish with T cut has some nice patina .

Hammerrite isn't known as hammer wrong in the motor trade for nothing.  It reacts with all kinds of things 

[Adrian Stevenson]

Speaking as someone in the antiques auction business, you will kill the value by "restoring" ie repainting this.

 

Get it up and running, gently clean it but don't repaint.

 

Cheers, Ade.

 

 

 

 

[Clagsniffer]

Good evening chaps, thanks for all the responses.

 

I suppose I should have been clearer in my opening post on what I meant by “restore”. I would like to get it up and running so that I can hopefully have it on in the back garden on a summer evening, more for ambience than anything else. I’m not looking to restore it for selling on. That being said, you never know what’s around the corner, so I think I’ll go down the “gentle cleaning” route as suggested. No point in decreasing the potential value of it. I quite like the used look anyway.

 

so back to the burner side of it, are we saying that knurled wheel should turn and raise/lower the wick? Does seem jammed pretty solid, god knows when it was turned last. Where could I source paraffin from? Not that I’ll be going anywhere anytime soon with this lockdown!

 

Cheers.

[57xx]

5 minutes ago, Clagsniffer said:

so back to the burner side of it, are we saying that knurled wheel should turn and raise/lower the wick? Does seem jammed pretty solid,

 

Yes, it will work with a fresh wick. When the wicks are dried and burnt like that, the wheel will get stuck. I had the same on an old hurricane lamp.

 

 

[Hal Nail]

I think I bought mine for about 20 quid so not quite sure how much value restoring it would risk!

[BlackRat]

I have one without a burner....... anybidea where I might get one from?

[Adrian Stevenson]

Put some easing oil on the shaft of the wheel. Repeat after a few days then try and move it.

 

You can get lamp oil or paraffin from hardware stores. You may be able to get a wick too from a garden centre as similar are used in greenhouse heaters.

 

Cheers, Ade.

[Happy Hippo]

15 hours ago, Clagsniffer said:

I suppose I should have been clearer in my opening post on what I meant by “restore”. I would like to get it up and running so that I can hopefully have it on in the back garden on a summer evening, more for ambience than anything else.

I have a bake van side lamp which is used in the back garden just as you suggest.

 

We substituted Citronella for paraffin so it doubles up as an insect repeller.  However, it's only for outdoor use!

[Happy Hippo]

For the uninitiated, a bake van is always attached to the end of an unfitted cake train!!

[Oldddudders]

And, for the modern image lamp enthusiast 

 

 

I'm not sure there are many of these in France, but they were the standard issue to BR traincrew, shunters, station staff and signalboxes from the mid-60s onwards. No, this one wasn't nicked. It has a plaque commemorating my retirement, now 16 years ago, so the fact that the original battery still works is remarkable. 

[The Johnster]

Your wick is trimmed approximately correctly for use; it is designed to burn for 24 hours without exhausting a fully filled reservoir.  Have you tried filling the reservoir with paraffin (or Citronella) and lighting it?   You will eventually have to free the adjuster to trim and replace the wick, but they last a good long time and you may well get a decent lifetime of occasional summer evening garden use  out of yours as it is.

Edited March 25, 2020 by The Johnster

[St Enodoc]

12 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

And, for the modern image lamp enthusiast 

 

 

I'm not sure there are many of these in France, but they were the standard issue to BR traincrew, shunters, station staff and signalboxes from the mid-60s onwards. No, this one wasn't nicked. It has a plaque commemorating my retirement, now 16 years ago, so the fact that the original battery still works is remarkable. 

We had a fellow in the Scottish Region who adapted these to run with a rechargeable battery. Lord knows where mine went though.

 

Is yours a three-colour or (I believe less common) four-colour version?

[Hal Nail]

On 24/03/2020 at 13:08, Happy Hippo said:

For the uninitiated, a bake van is always attached to the end of an unfitted cake train!!

Sadly cake tends to just increase ones waistline whereas ideally it would be through piped, so to speak.

[Oldddudders]

11 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

We had a fellow in the Scottish Region who adapted these to run with a rechargeable battery. Lord knows where mine went though.

 

Is yours a three-colour or (I believe less common) four-colour version?

RGY and clear. I did once have cause to use a red to stop a passenger train. It was running slowly on the wrong line, due to a bombscare requiring it to set back. But I then pointed out to the signalman that if he used a different crossover we could get the train on the right line and under fixed signals sooner. I skipped across to stop the train with my red bardic. "What's that?" asked the driver. "I hope it's a hand danger signal." I said, and explained the altered move. Like any other driver, he was much happier being on the correct line under fixed signals sooner. Job done.  

[The Johnster]

Udders' Bardic is the 3 colour signalman's version, with a rotating knob to change colours on top; I don't believe there ever was a 4 colour one, but I'm not counting clear/white as a colour.  The 3 colour red/yellow/green lamps were issued to signalmen, and traincrew, shunters, etc got the 2 colour red/green type which had a lever which you flicked to each side for the red and green; the centre position was the clear/white.  There was a lamp bracket on the back so you could use it as a tail light if necessary.

 

I suppose it is natural that storemen come to regard their items as belonging to them, and are reluctant to hand them out, but at Canton it was always an issue getting an issue (if you see what I mean) of replacement Bardic batteries.  The prevalence of night work meant I went through them like a billygoat on acid in a field of nannies, and he was convinced I was selling them or using them for some nefarious personal reason.  You held on to your Bardic like grim death; the kerfuffle you had to go through to get a replacement out of him was incredible (to be fair there was a bit of a black market in them, especially after the firm went out of business).  

 

I wish I'd kept mine!

[St Enodoc]

14 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Udders' Bardic is the 3 colour signalman's version, with a rotating knob to change colours on top; I don't believe there ever was a 4 colour one, but I'm not counting clear/white as a colour.  The 3 colour red/yellow/green lamps were issued to signalmen, and traincrew, shunters, etc got the 2 colour red/green type which had a lever which you flicked to each side for the red and green; the centre position was the clear/white.  There was a lamp bracket on the back so you could use it as a tail light if necessary.

 

I suppose it is natural that storemen come to regard their items as belonging to them, and are reluctant to hand them out, but at Canton it was always an issue getting an issue (if you see what I mean) of replacement Bardic batteries.  The prevalence of night work meant I went through them like a billygoat on acid in a field of nannies, and he was convinced I was selling them or using them for some nefarious personal reason.  You held on to your Bardic like grim death; the kerfuffle you had to go through to get a replacement out of him was incredible (to be fair there was a bit of a black market in them, especially after the firm went out of business).  

 

I wish I'd kept mine!

I was indeed counting "clear" as a colour, so by 4-colour I meant R/Y/G/clear (white).

[Oldddudders]

White is an important colour. In my day, and for a long time before, white was the colour shown by platform staff to the guard to indicate station duties were completed. That was in the days when the guard was in charge of the train. 

[great central]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

White is an important colour. In my day, and for a long time before, white was the colour shown by platform staff to the guard to indicate station duties were completed. That was in the days when the guard was in charge of the train. 

 

Still the same now, although Bardics have been superseded by, in some cases a fairly small, but quite bright LED lamp.

Some stations also have a combined despatch bat with a circle of coloured LEDs in the middle able to show white, red or green.

And remarkably enough there's still a good number of places where the guard is in charge of the train, I'm back at work next week, a week's leave quarantined at home

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

White is an important colour. In my day, and for a long time before, white was the colour shown by platform staff to the guard to indicate station duties were completed. That was in the days when the guard was in charge of the train. 

I had to check to see whether things had changed since my day, but no - white is still an important colour. Shunting staff still use it for "go" at night. Green is still "go slowly" (highly simplified, before anyone jumps in).

 

See https://catalogues.rssb.co.uk/rgs/rulebooks/GERT8000-SS2 Iss 5.pdf

 

page 13.

 

As we were all taught "White is right, red is wrong, green means gently go along".

[Nick C]

My Bardic (a tenner off eBay) also does all four colours - and yes, we use white for train dispatch & shunting, and also for general "being a torch" duties. Yellow is used for handsignalling, either 'caution' at a semaphore distant signal or 'proceed' in a colour light area.

[The Johnster]

White was also used to give the 'tip' to the driver by the guard when he'd safely boarded the van, as well as for general illumination of your path of course, and as van interior lighting.