British rail lamp

Hi all on Saturday I bought this paraffin lamp from a second hand collectable shop.
It is a British rail type signal lamp, is there any one out there who knows exactly what purpose this lamp was used for.
It has two lenses one with a red glass slide so one side would give a red light the other a normal light, there are two mounting brackets on it, so it could show the red light or the normal.
I have all ready started the restoration process,





Here is the lamp from both sides showing the red slide over the lens and the normal light.



This is the lamp having the electrolysis rust treatment, I will add more pics once the lamp is finished.
Many thanks for any advice

 

Hi Mr Optimus you have Brake Van side lamp which could be used left side or right side showing a red light to rear, clear light to front hence the two brackets.
Al

 

Hi Al many thanks for your answer, at first I thought it was one of the lamps on the old level crossing gates, if memory serves me right they were usually painted white and were a bit larger.
I have nearly finished painting it and have ordered a new wick for the burner,.
Once I have finished it I will up load more pics

 

Here are a few pictures of the brake van side lamp.



Here it is after having the electrolysis treatment, it removed the old tired paint as well as the rust.
there was a little surface rust here and there but it was no big deal as I was to use black hammerite smooth spray paint.



Here are the parts all painted up, and a new wick fitted.





Two pics of the lamp finished and lit with the red reflector showing

 

Well fettled!

 

Thanks Jeff for the complement, I would like to have one of the small hand lamps

 

Well done mr. Optimus. The lamp looks new.
I already found a battery-charger in the used/sale-paper.
I have some de-rusting to do on 2 arms for my hanginglamps.

Claus C

 

Well done Brian

Nice job

 

Hi claus many thanks, well done on scoreing a battery charger.

The electrolysis is a fantastic way of removing rust, it is so effective and effortless compared to wire brushing, even when a electric drill is used with a wire cup. It even makes removal of paint easy how I don't know, the only draw back is it takes time but you can be doing other fettling while its doing its work.

What I should have done was to have several pieces of sacrificial metal, to completely surround the work, so all sides of the lamp would receive treatment at the same time instead of having to move the lamp so the next side can receive the treatment.
Thank you Longilily for your complement

 

Another trick with the electrolysis method is rather than using a battery charger, an old PSU from a PC can be used as the power source, as it provides 12V DC at a pretty high current.

 

Hi James good idea,I assume any low voltage DC source could be used in electrolysis.

 

DC it is, at 12V:

http://spaco.org/Blacksmithing/Rust/ElectrolyticDerusting.htm

 

Hi Mr Optimus, here is my side lamp, this one is white as you can see. If anybody knows the relevance of the different colours, please let me know.

 

Hi John, there is no picture I think the system may have had a fault

 

Hi, i will try again, hopefully with better results.
I do however seem to be struggling a little.

 

Hi John sorry it has not worked, it may be because earlier there was a dater base error

 

Yes, there was this database error just recently, and it affected the uploading just as the last time.
John, try it again now.

 

Hi Mr Optimus, here is a third attempt at posting a couple of pics.