Railroadiana
Railroadiana or railwayana refers to artifacts of currently or formerly operating railways around the world. Railroadiana can include items such as:
- Brakeman's or marker lanterns
- Date nails, rail spikes, or short sections of rail
- Dining car linens, holloware, cutlery, or porcelain
- Locomotive nameplates or builder's plates
- Promotional or advertising materials from railway passenger and freight service
- Public or employee timetables
- Railroad hand tools such as wrenches, shovels, or brakeman's clubs
- Railroad switch stands or keys
- Sleeping car linens
- Station signs and railway signals
- Trackside signs such as mile posts or flanger signs
- Train dispatching forms and train orders
- Train horns and whistles
A Brakeman's lantern from the Chicago and North Western Railway. Lanterns like this are a common type of railroadiana.
A creamer and sugar bowl used by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, made by Harrison & Howson for dining car service
A brass plaque from an Andrew Barclay locomotive of 1925
There are many more types of railroadiana available to the collector. Some railroadiana collectors include items in their collections as large as speeders or complete passenger cars.
The majority of pieces forming a collection can be legally obtained, often but not always at low cost, from either surplus or scrap sales from the railroad companies themselves, or through aftermarket railroadiana shows. Highly desirable items (rare or from popular lines) may sell for significant multiples of their original price.
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