That was a good idea and

That was a good idea and looks great. 

You could install him on the step of the caboose and if your DCC, you could control the lantern with an decoder. 

Very nice Bernhard

You are the Master of tiny work, my Friend!

Thanks!

Jürg,
thanks! I love such small work and especially this where you can see it relatively well by the eliminated lantern.

Bob, thanks also!
Yes, this was the sense of this small work. However the switchman with a red lantern? I think that a switchman ought to use white/yellow lanterns in the dark. Or is there a realistic use for the lantern with the red globe on a caboose?

Think you will find that

Think you will find that predominantly marker lights on the rear of a caboose or trailing unit would be red. So your model could be hanging a light, but not typically using it on a train. He could be used at a location that requires a train to stop. In which case as was stated you could use a decoder to turn the red lamp on and off. A switchman would use a white light to both signal and see with. 

Multi-colour shunting lanterns

Hi Bernhard and all,

I'm not sure if these are used in the US but they are used out here. The ealrlier lanterns were kerosene lamps, but these days the lamps are battery-powered like this one  https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/isaacs/collectables/railway-shunters-hand-lamp-i-think-you-need-new-battery/1105829888 The lamps are fitted with 3 colour filters that can be rotated to change the colour of the light from the lamp. The colurs are red, green and clear. Please have a look at pages 4 & 5 at https://www.artc.com.au/library/ANGE%20202%20Handsignals%20I%203%20Rev%200.pdf to see how the various colour filters are used. 

Now to Bernhard's barkeman - if he was mounted on the back steps of the cabbose/last vehicle (in industrial shunting with no caboose), and if the light was DCC controlled then the brakie's red light could be lit when

• the caboose has reached the end of its shove move (we've arrivved - STOP!!)
• if a the train is parked in a siding and the train is not to be moved (other men on the ground/between wagons, I think I smell a hotbox up front somewhere and need to check it out, etc)
• The caboose is not to be approached by a locomotive for some reason - crew having crib inside?, 
• any other plausible reasi=on why you might want the caboos in particular and anything attached to it to remain stationary

I hope that this gives you some possible "plausibles" for a "steady red" from the caboose. 

PS - I'm assuming you've seen the youtube of Laurie McLean's animated brakie at

Nice work on your brakie,

Excellent Tutorial

Great work and excellent tutorial.

Red Light District

your excellent model could be entering or leaving the local cathouse, house of joy, Bordell, or whatever else you want to call it.

DrJolS

Thanks to all!

Thanks to all for your friendly comments and ideas for use my switchman.

John, especially thanks to you for your extensive hints, I will see what I can realize.
A possible way is to use the man as a staff member of a railroad museum especially with steam locos in its roster and also with daily tourist trains, where these trains must run backward into a passenger track und where my brakeman will stop the train before the exhibited locos and some cars. In this case the lantern could be activated and this should be a very good use for my switchman, I think.
Maybe also that I could use it as a "flag man" (in this case with a red lantern) to save a caboose on a side track. However that and others are ideas which I will discuss with my friends yet but all your ideas are very reasonable and helpful.
Some of other ideas are very nice however not so good to realize because this layout is a modular built one which will built up and presented only for exhibitions and there the visitors prefer to see running trains. There will not be a chance to save a derailed train by a railroad employee - or it will be a single person standing alone on side of a track without a realistic sense.
I think that some photos will be posted here in next year and maybe also with this brakeman or also with a second one then with a white lantern. The exhibition will held in end of January of next year and until that we ought to have found a solution also for this small figure.

A new brakeman ...

... now also with a white/yellow lantern in his hand.

And a little bit more detailed model on base of an old and cheap free-lanced MDC caboose including train end lanterns at roof ends.

Some lettering corrections and a bit dust on new free rolling trucks will follow yet ...

... and then it's time for playing!

Perfect

Thank you Bernhard for providing an excellent tutorial on how to make switch lanterns. Great pictures and perfect instructions !

Michael

Nice to read about your

Nice to read about your interest, Michael. Try it and I think that you will have success with a third attempt.

Wow!

Beautiful work! Not sure if I could do that, but, that doesn't mean I won't try someday. (these sorts of tutorials is why I love this magazine!)

Thanks, Warflight!

Thanks, Warflight!

Red Lantern Brakeman

You could use the mini-brakie as a crossing watchman instead.

That would be the proper use of a red lantern.

Growing up around Downtown Hammond, Indiana the crossing watchman at the major street crossing of Homan Avenue with all the following railroads, Indiana Harbor Belt, Nickel Plate Road, Erie, Monon and Chicago Western Indiana would walk out of his shack in the dark or cloudy days carrying a red lantern and his oval shaped STOP sign to warn road traffic. This was after he had cranked down the hand operated crossing gates!

There was so much train traffic through the crossing however that sometimes it seemed that the crossing watchman was like the Lionel one---he would POP out his shack!

Interesting take on this subject.

Very nicely done.

For others check out:

http://www.quickpicbooks.com/MMR/Electric/SMLED_1/SMLED_Book.html

and:

Todd

Red Light

None of those are typical of N American practice.

• At the end of the shove,the brakeman would use a white lantern and give a stop signal ( swung horizontally across the tracks)
• A red light on the rear doesn't mean "don't couple into the train", all that would mean is its the end of the train.
• A red light on the rear doesn't mean "don't couple into the train", even if they are sleeping.  There is no signal to keep an engine from coupling into a caboose, occupied or not, other than a blue flag if the carmen are working on it.
• A red light on the rear doesn't mean "keep the train stationary."

Based on typical 1920's rules, what a brakeman with a red light on the rear steps of a caboose means is that its night and the train has stopped or is about to stop or drop him off to flag the rear of the train.  The brakeman (flagman) will go back flagging distance (anywhere from 1/2 mile to two miles depending on track speed) and prepare to stop a following train.  Flagging at night is about the only place a red light in the hands of a brakeman is mentioned.  For added detail a metal can about 4 inches in diameter or square and about 18" long on a sling strap might be carried by the flagman.  Its a flagging kit that has two compartments, a small on on the bottom that holds torpedoes and a large one on top that holds fusee's, plus there will be a 1" tube on the side that holds a rolled up red flag.  Here's a rectangular one.  The handle is attached to the flag holder and the top compartment for the fusees is on the right end.  The latch for the torpedo compartment can be seen at the left end of the sling.

Having the brakeman on the rear steps of a moving train would just be the rear brakemena/flagman getting ready to get off and protect the train the next time it stops.  Your brakeman is a really nervous one and so is getting in position way ahead of time which is why he would be in position on a moving train.  Or he is a really slow brakeman and is taking his sweet time about getting off it the train has been stopped for a while. 

Dear Dave

Dear Dave

I never said that these light signals were prototypical for the US. Please re-read the first part of my posting about tri-colour shunting lanterns. As far as I know, these tri-colour shunting lanterns are not used in the US. In both Australia and the UK, the use of these tri-colour kerosene lanterns goes back at least to the early 1900's. 

Now also remember we are working with model trains on own model railroads, and we can make our own rules if necessary. Bernhard asked what he could do with a brakeman with a lantern that gave a fixed red light when lit. I gave some instances based on past and current Australian shunting practices using tri-colour shunting lanterns where a steady red light could be displayed. 

I've seen the "steady red" light from one of these tri-colour lanterns used to hold a train stationary, or clear of other wagons, in both industry and heritage night operations out here, until the shunter (our version of the brakie on the ground) is ready for stuff to move. 

I bow to your superior knowledge of US railroad practices, but I think I did answer Bernard's initial question about some possible uses for a model brakie with a "steady red" light.  Whether Bernhard accepts or rejects any or all of what I've put up as suggestions is up to him. Thanks for the clarifications on US practices after dark,