The Midland Railway Study Centre Assemblage Trails

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY ASSEMBLAGE TRAILS
"The Enthusiast's Trail"
Stop Fifteen: Early Carriage Lighting

Turn around to the 'B' aisle...

Two large lamps, plainted back with a brass ring at mid-height and glass beneath (though the glass is absent from one of them). A large handle is fixed to the top.

Stop 15

Where: B18 blue

What: Carriage lamps

Material: Tin and glass.

Why: Before gas lighting became common in railway carriages, illumination for passengers was provided by oil “pot lamps” like these two examples (one is minus its glass). As dusk approached, during a station stop a lamp lighter would walk along the roof of the train dropping these lamps into specially provided holes in the roof; the ridge of the lamp forming a snug fit inside the hole. In the morning the process would be reversed and all the lamps refilled, trimmed and made ready for the next night. No wonder the move to gas lighting and later electricity came about. These two examples survived as they were used in horse boxes which were evidently never converted to gas lighting.

Ref: RFB12526 & RFB12527

A scan of an old drawing which illustrates how thse lamps slotted into the roof of a coach