This lot features a antique Arlington Dressel NJ railroad switch lantern. The lantern has been pristinely preserved. It features three blue lenses and one red lens all of which appear intact with only small cracks with light surface damage . In the days before city lights and GPS, railroad lanterns served a very important purpose: they communicated signals at night between trains and stations. Sometimes, a timely lantern signal meant the difference between life and death. In one romanticized 19th-century story, for example, a 15-year-old girl named Kate Shelley saved the Fast Atlantic Express from a broken bridge by alerting a station agent, whose lantern signal to the train averted disaster. In the most basic sense, railroad lanterns have four components: a base, a wire guard (or cage), a chimney, and a glass globe housing the light source. The cage protects this globe from damage, but, even so, antique lanterns with intact globes are rare. This lantern is in good overall condition. Measures: 20" H x 10" W x 9" D

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