Paint for Oil Hand Lamps

Afternoon all,

This week I have acquired the following oil lamps:
- 1x BR Pattern Tail Lamp (Empty Case)
- 1x Early SR (LBSCR Pattern) Hand Lamp. Burner complete and usable but red filter shattered and soldering at base gone.
- 1x LSWR Hand Lamp (Empty Case)
- 1x BR(S) (SR Pattern) Four Aspect Hand Lamp. Burner probably unusable, all filters intact and structurally sound.

Now, the first three of those I don't intend using currently though I will probably swap the burners of the BR(S) and LBSCR-Pattern ones to create one usable lamp. I have almost stripped the BR(S) one to bare metal ready for a repaint, and this is where I could use some advice. For the Tail Lamp I simply used some standard white paint, for the LBSCR-Pattern Hand Lamp (which I intended to use until I dropped the blasted thing on the footbridge at Alton) I painted on a layer of black hammerite followed by a layer of black gloss, but this doesn't seem to have worked terribly well.

Is there anyone on here who might be able to offer some guidance as to how to best paint one of these lamps, and what paint is best to use? I can't imagine that any random type of paint can be used due to the heat involved when the lamp is lit. I'd like to get a decent finish on all of these, the LSWR one also preferably being able to have a burner put in it at some point.

 

How long did you leave before applying the gloss? Hammerite (and Smoothrite) is odd stuff & you need to follow their instructions. IIRC it needs something like 6 weeks to cure properly before overcoating.

I doubt that the Big Railway used anything 'special', any damage was probably taken care of by anyone on 'light duties' with whatever came to hand.

Some years ago now I painted Pannier 3738 at Didcot in Wartime Black. The brass safety valve bonnet got the following treatment:

A rough clean/degrease (scotchbrite pad, white spirit) & allowed to dry;
1 coat Finnegan's Special Metals Primer
1 coat Crown Trade Grey undercoat
1 coat Black Gloss.

Not a bit of it shifted, despite the hostile environment, & when 3738 got a repaint after some out-of-the-frames boiler work a few years later, the bonnet was just keyed up & given another gloss.

Finnegan's SPM is amazing stuff. I have yet to find a substrate to which it won't stick like the proverbial. Aluminium, Brass, Gunmetal, Galvanise, & Steel. It'll stick to wood as well. Only things I haven't tried it on (& wouldn't expect it to work) are Glass & Synthetics (e.g. Formica). It's water-based so needs a pretty scrupulously clean surface, & it's hard to avoid brushmarks - but it can be thinned & airbrushed very easily.

Pete S.

 

An old fashion paint ,dont know if you can still get it, is Japan black enamel. Painted my BR lamp with it over 20 years ago andstill fairly tidy

 

Simoniz Engine Enamel sounds like it could be worth a spin.

Hammerite do a high temp Matt Black rattle can, up to 600°C.

 

Thanks to all of you so far. Sorry about having not yet replied, I've simply been storing away your suggestions until such a time as I can hopefully buy some of this stuff and crack on with the restorations.

A slightly related question - Where might I find a standard (Hah!) small-variety SR Hand Lamp burner? I require just the burner, a push-fit (as opposed to screw-fit) one, to fit the BR(S) Lamp. The lamp in question looks like this (middle one) -

As I say, I think that's the standard SR 'small' lamp case.
I have a tank and reflector in there, but the burner in there is a BR tail lamp one and therefore isn't really suitable for a hand lamp.
I had hoped to use the working burner and tank from the LBSCR-pattern lamp (left), but as you can see that is substantially larger than the SR-pattern one. Additionally, the burner in it is a screw-fit so can't be transplanted onto the other tank. I might see if I can get the larger tank into the LSWR lamp case (right) though.

 

When I purchased the carcas of a BR lamp from Colectord Corner they had some nondescript, probably tail lamp , burners. I made a tank to fit the burner and have had no problems using it in anger so to speak. I will however make a comparison with some sidelamps I have

 

Compared the burners in a few lamps. As I said my oldest handlamp was rebuilt round a tail lamp burner, same as in my sidelamps. I also have a totally original but unrestored BR(M) hand lamp and that has a similar burner.

As to paint and temperature the only part of the lamp which gets apreciaably warm is the bonnet / chimney, the circular cover over the burner and below the handle. Often have one alight for a shift and whilst hot can be touched with the fingers so no real need for high temp paint

 

Thanks for the advice, everyone. In the event I went for a spray can of stove paint, which seems to have done the job.


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I will tell a funny story re oil handlamps. This is not a SVR story but I wont mention the railway.

I was guarding an evening train. The railway provided bardics for use on such trains. I was sitting in the brake filling in the blanks on the journal,date name etc when the ops manager burst in. "Dont wory about that, I take it he meant the journal, you are cancelled. " Why I askes, loco,pw signals?. "Have you not checked - both bardics are flat" Dont usually use a bardic flourishing my oil fired "HANDLAMP IN WORKING ORDER -as per the rules. "Does it work queried the OM" " of course I replied. "You are running" he retorted as he left as briskly as he had arrived

 

Love it!

I find, when I've used an oil lamp, the public are usually pretty impressed - When they're working they usually work very well. I find they actually lend themselves much better to train dispatch than a BARDIC.

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Only time I used a Bardic was in self defence

 

I've contemplated this in the past...

 

Bardic and a brakestick, ideal accompaniment to a walk around the sidings at night. A new meaning to "lamping someone"

 

I believe that a bardic has actually been used in those circumstances.

 

Lamp No.2 (The LSWR one) is now done!


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Quick question from a newly lamp-owning guard (almost). What oil would you recommend using, a lamp oil or kerosene? As far as I can see, kerosene smells worse but burns brighter, do either of these characteristics mark it out as better or worse to use than lamp oil overall?

 

Quote: I painted Pannier 3738 at Didcot in Wartime Black. The brass safety valve bonnet got the following treatment:

And there was I in 1976 making sure that the safety valve bonnet was highly polished brass after the then owner Warwick Ormandy with some help from me and with Pete Gransden's invaluable advice restored it 1974-6. I agree that the bonnet would not have been brass when built but "37" did look good in green with a polished safety valve bonnet.

57xx/8750 class rule OK.

Julian

 

I use parafin as found in B&Q gardening section

 

Does anyone know of a supplier for bulls eye lenses? I need a couple of red ones.