WIP at home: Thursday 7th Part II

Roger Bye continues the story of the heritage station lamps.

Since last week it has come to light (!) that the barley twist lamps replaced the previously installed wooden ones at Woody Bay around 1933/34 - so very late in the life of the railway. So history is being repeated as we change from wooden to cast iron posts again.

This week we will look in more detail at the work Dave has been doing recently and continues at home during the current restrictions.

1, 2, & 3. The replica and original lanterns were all in pretty poor condition as can be seen from these pictures.

The frames of the lanterns are either brass or copper with glass glazing. The white painted top panels of the oldest lamp are broken and will probably be replaced with acrylic sheet if white glass is unavailable. One of the lanterns is sealed up with no access door so Dave is going to have to “break in”. He is then proposing to make a glazed hinged door - no easy job when you look at the geometry!

4. The replica lamps recovered from the Down Platform had been fitted with conventional top mounted lamp holders. The lights fitted in these shone downwards on the glass chimney.

5, & 6. As mentioned last week in Part 1, Dave decided he could improve on this arrangement by making a dummy oil lamp base. Here is a prototype base carved out of wood and a picture of some finished items complete with dummy filler cap and chimney mounting.

7. These bases were then fitted with an LED filament bulb and a glass chimney. The label on the chimney reminds us that these renovations don’t come cheap and are often funded by the person doing the work!

8, & 9. The lantern metalwork was cleaned up, re-glazed as necessary, painted and the “oil lamp” assembly fitted.

10. The final job is to fit the lantern to the post and connect the supply cable. The ornate bracket supporting the lantern is secured to the post with a collar that has to be specially made.

Dave continues his great work, hoping to complete the two lamps for the Down platform and also to renovate the lanterns on the Up platform that are mounted on the station building.

There is then one more lantern to work on, the final location of which is under discussion!

Roger Bye

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