Stuff on running boards.

[Todd Hackett]

Are those some sort of lanterns on the running board? It looks like there are a couple more behind the two in front.

[Robert McFarland]

There looks to be 2 more lanterns plus a toolbox on each running board and some sort of a lubricant can on top of one of the toolboxes.It makes you wonder why the Mason was running without a headlight.

[CM Auditor]

I have noticed on a lot of WHJ and LMC photos from the DPL the CM was carrying extra lanterns on the running boards also.  This seems to be common on lokies in the Rockies.
Tom

[Rick Steele]

The lanterns look like the most common type that were used for those most prized of lantern collectibles, The Conductor's Presentation Lantern. They are a very early style. The Presentation Lantern was a lantern with a multi colored globe and the Conductor's Name and Date of Promotion etched into the globe the lantern body was usually nickel plated.

These are probably just the workaday lanterns or on hand to hang on a handrail to display the proper markers.

Robert, The headlight being off is not unusual at this time. Whether a Headlight was on or off during the daylight was a Railroad Option during this era. As a matter of fact, Looking at the photo, I don't even see a headlight, only the stack and stack base

We are too used to what we see today. The Headlight on Bright day and night wasn't made mandatory until the 1950's.

Rick

[Robert McFarland]

I was referring to the fact there is no headlight mounted on the bracket.The photo of  3 near Alpine with the construction train on the siding behind it gives the impression that its bracket is damaged in that the headlight looks like it is pointed in a slightly downward angle.

[Rick Steele]

It looks like a lot of daylight running for 3, at least until it gets to a roundhouse or repair facility.

[Keith Hayes]

I submit that the can on the toolbox in front of the cab is a lunch bucket.

The pilot looks pretty spiffy--could this be a new (or freshly shopped) loco?

[Jeff Ramsey]

Todd, funny you mention that you started this thread as below I have posted some images of some double-trucks that seem to have 2 or 1`oil cans with pipes that run down the running board on the fireman's side. I have wondered what these were for as they are not in Art Wallace's drawings but seem to be affixed to the engine with the piping and all. One "theory" of mine is that was some kind of flange oiler as the first few Masons had problems with pre-mature driver flange wear. Later locomotives from Mason had a more improved pilot truck that helped this problem. There is also a image of DSP&P 12 with a Baldwin at Deer Creek that show the same thing. Any other ideas?

DSP&P 3 1878-79


Two more images of DSP&P 8 1879-80

[Robert McFarland]

How come other photos of early Bogies don't show this feature?If there was some kind of 'oiler' wouldn't it show on both sides?There is a galvanized "thingy" near the two cans and then there is some sort of a line running from the cab,along the running board and in to the boiler-which are you referring to?

[Derrell Poole]

You sure have a knack for asking questions of an esoteric nature!

[Robert McFarland]

Huh?

[Derrell Poole]

The people who can answer that question - if it even has an answer - are DEAD! Sort of the ultimate secretive group, would you agree? (The subject of your question being "photos")

[Keith Hayes]

...they all look like lunch pails to me.

[Robert McFarland]

Until they dig the buried Mason Bogie up.Those pails look a bit large for a lunch pail-could they be for grease?You  would think the crew would stow their dinner pails in the cab.At one time I thought I could see an extra bell mounted  near the front cab wall in the picture of #8 climbing Kenosha Pass(the one with the boxcar in it)but in the copy posted here I don't see the item I thought was a bell.In other words a lot of times we see what we want to see.

[Rick Steele]

Grease would have to be heated to flow. Even the Detroit Mechanical and Hydrostatic Lubricators used Oil. I think that Jeff's supposition may be the most logical one as the carbon sticks that are currently used hadn't been invented yet.

Another explanation might be that these early Bogies needed lubrication to an area that was either overlooked or ignored by Mason when they were built. This could have been rectified on later models in the same order lot. Rails can be pretty ingenious and practical when the want to be. This looks like an example of their ingenuity.

Rick

[Robert McFarland]

Or could they be spare cans of oil?

[Rick Steele]

With the tubing hooked to a spigot?

[Robert McFarland]

What tubing?What spigot?

[Rick Steele]

See Jeff Ramsey's post above. If hooked to tubing, the discharge of oil has to be regulated somehow, whether by butterfly valve, ball valve or spigot.

Rick

[Chris Walker]

This got my interest, I often have wondered about this funnel shaped apperatus on a pipe beside the Steam Dome, it doesn't fit with the sandpipes.  A flange lubricator would be a good match.  There wouldn't be the need to have a large reservoir as these locos didn't travel huge distances.  Flow could be regulated anywhere in the pipe with a spigot.  We once had two Diesels with flange lubricators as an experiment, I was surprised to see just how simple the set-up was.

http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll21/id/12604/rv/singleitem/rec/157