Railroadiana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Railroadiana 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 service
- brakeman's or marker lanterns
- horns and whistles
- locomotive nameplates
- station signs and railway signals
- dining car linens 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 at low cost, from either surplus or scrap sales from the railroad companies themselves, or through aftermarket railroadiana shows.