Restoring an I&GN Lantern

[peggyrothschild]

I recently pickup up an I&GN lantern that was pretty grimy and had a layer of surface rust. I did a search on cleaning up railroad lanterns and found the url I posted below. Following the directions for using lye and a SOS pad I filled a five gallon bucket with water, added the lye and stirred it until the lye was dissolved. I took the lantern apart and tossed the frame and parts in the lye and let it soak for four days.

I inspected the frame and it looked better and the water/lye mix had turned into a grayish brown liquid. I dumped the mix and added water and two gallons of white vinegar to neutralize the lye. After the parts and frame soaked in the vinegar bath for a while I used a SOS pad to remove the remaining dirt and surface rust. Then used clean water to remove the SOS soap. Then went over all the wire frame, pot and dome with WD40 and 0000 steel wool. Below are the before and after images.

http://www.railroadiana.org/lanterns/pgLanterns_Restoration.php

If using the lye method do make sure you have rubber gloves and goggles when around the lye/water.

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[luisflierl26]

What did you use to clean it?

[peggyrothschild]

The lye and water removed or loosen the decades of grime. The final polishing was the 0000 steel wool and WD40.

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