Collectors on the Right Track with Railroadiana

The news that Warren Buffet, one of the nation’s wealthiest men and its most influential investor, would be spending billions to buy the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Rail-road was some of the best economic news we have heard in a long time.
For travel and especially for shipping, railroads are cleaner, cheaper and more efficient than cars and trucks. They help build this country’s past, and now they are ready again to save our future.
There has always been a romance about railroads, whether it’s about posh Pullman parlor cars or hoboes hopping a freight car. And no one knows that romance better than the collector of railroadi-ana, the wide range of items from or relating to old railroads.
Much of railroading is about timing, and signal lanterns are both popular with collectors. It was important that the early kerosene lanterns never blew out despite wind or weather, so some of the old lamps boasted patents that can help with dating them. Most lanterns today sell for $50 to $150, but some unique and colorful examples can be $200-350.
In 1863, The General Railroad Standards Com-mission set the standards for a railroad watch. A railroad watch had to be open (no case cover), be a size 18 or 16 (about one and two-thirds inches), have a minimum of 17 jewels, be accurate within a gain or less of 30 sec-onds, and adjust to tem-peratures of 30 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
It also had to have a white face with plain Ara-bic numerals boldly printed in black and have black hands. The winding stem had to be at 12 o’clock and lever set, that it is: the only way you could set the watch was to remove the crystal, push a lever, spin the hands, push the lever back, and reattach the crystal.
If you are lucky enough to find an old railroad watch today that fits these specifications, they could be valued at $50 to $500, depending on quality, gold content, inscriptions, maker and rarity.
Railroad china brings back the glamorous days of luxurious rail travel. One of the most prolific producers of American railroad china was the German firm of Bauscher, and it is still held in high regard by collectors today. That’s saying something, because the competition was some of the finest European firms like Spode, Minton, Grindley and Haviland.
The big volume American makers of railroad china were Syracuse and Shenango, with Buffalo, Warwick, Hall, Iroquois, OPCP, Universal, Homer Laughlin and Sterling not far behind.
Railroadiana collectors also look for uniforms, badges, buttons, baggage tags, tickets and ticket punchers, postcards, prints, and advertisements.
Railroad collectibles are bound to get more popular and valuable in the future. They are also great fun and can be interestingly decorative. To get yourself aboard on the right track to learn more about this fascinating field of collecting, your first stop has to be the not-for-profit site www.railroadiana.org.
Arthur Schwerdt, a cer-tified collector, is the author of “The Antique Story Book: Finding the Real Value of Old Things,” and co-owner of The August Farmhouse An-tiques on Route 9 in Swainton. Send your comments, questions, or appraisal requests to aschwerdt@cmcherald.com.