Railroadiana
A brakeman's lantern from the Chicago and North Western Railway. Lanterns like this are a common type of railroadiana.
Creamer and sugar bowl from ATSF service, made by Harrison & Howson for dining car service
A brass plaque from an Andrew Barclay locomotive of 1925.
Railroadiana or railwayana refers to artifacts of currently or formerly operating railways around the world. Railroadiana can include items such as:
- public or employee timetables
- promotional or advertising materials from railway passenger and freight service
- brakeman's or marker lanterns
- horns and train whistles
- locomotive nameplates or builder's plates
- station signs and railway signals
- dining car linens, holloware, cutlery and china
- sleeping car linens
- datenails, rail spikes or short sections of rail
- train dispatching forms and train orders
- railroad hand tools such as wrenches, shovels and brakeman's clubs
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 (rare or from popular lines) items may sell for significant multiples of their original price.