Posted 10 years ago
lsandms
(5 items)
This is a marker lamp which was recently found on a beach, east of the LS&MS Bridge Disaster site in Ashtabula, Ohio. It was laying on top of the beach sand. As you can see , there is very little rust on the metal. My theory is that after the LS& MS locomotive "Columbia" fell, it landed upside down and face first. This was shown by photographs taken at the time of the wreck. It was in the dead of winter when the disaster happened. Apparently the lamp broke off and became frozen in ice from the river. It then must have floated down the river to the mouth of Lake Erie, bumped its way along the docks and headed east about a mile until it washed ashore on the beach at Lake Shore Park. There the ice melted at the first thaw and the lamp became buried by the sand. The amazing part of this whole story is that the sand kept the lantern from rusting from 1876 until 2013. There is a tray inside that held the oil pot, also it has two holes for a front globe and a side globe and a frame for an upward lifting door. Underneath are two holes for attachment to the Engine brackets. Embossed on the outside are the letters LS&MS.
Nice piece of history
VERY cool!