JeffPo's New York Central Blue Globe Lantern Page
Last update: 11/15/10
This Dietz Vesta lantern was used by the New York Central Railroad. The frame of the lantern is stamped N.Y.C.S. That stands for New York Central System.
The cobalt blue globe is also etched with N.Y.C.S. This color globe is a little harder to find than the clear or red ones.
Here you see what the lantern looks like when lit. It shines with an unmistakable blue hue. Most people probably aren't familiar with a blue color being used with the railroad. Red, clear, and green are probably more well known. But as you can see with this lantern, blue signals were also used. A blue signal was used on equipment that wasn't suppose to be moved. It could also be thought of as a "men at work" sign.
New York Central Railroad
A shrouded New York Central steam locomotive.
The New York Central Railroad was founded in 1853 by a merger of ten railroads. Headquartered in New York, it served a large portion of the area with extensive tracks in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, and New England. The New York Central was known as a “water level route”, which meant most of its routes followed rivers and didn’t have significant grade. The steam locomotives of this railroad were built for speed. Financial failings in the 1960’s eventually meant it became a “fallen flag” (i.e. a railroad that no longer exists) in 1968 when it joined the Pennsylvania Railroad in a merger that produced the Penn Central Railroad. Penn Central was merged into Conrail in 1976, which was purchased jointly by CSX and Norfolk & Southern in 1999.