A decent condition 1954-1956 Tilley BR49 which made it over to the USA at some point. While almost every other Tilley I have including a Guardsman DeLux of the same type, has the Thacker label, this one does not. Perhaps Thacker did not sell these or someone took off the label. The 1960 Shivley catalog (a Thacker distributor) did not list this lantern. From what I understand, this was made for the British Railway. I'm curious as to it's popularity with the general public, assuming that's why Tilley made the plated version. The only stamping on the bottom is "Made in England" along with a letter "T" stamped just above that. When I got the lantern, it was missing the two knurled nuts on the lighter which contain the gland washers, but the good folks at Tilley sent me a pair at no charge. They are aluminum of course, but do match the plated control cock nicely. I assume the prior owner was trying to fix the leak at the the feed port of the lighter and never put them back, as the whole thing came off in my hand as I was cleaning it. I soldered it back on and it's holding tight so far. The control cock is a 777A and therefore uses an adapter bushing which is not the same as the locating bushing on a 246. But since it uses two washers, I was able to locate it successfully by compressing them in turn during the installation. The lighter works really well, quickly pre-heating the burner with a nice tall flame with almost no soot. The trick is to allow only a very small amount of kerosene into the lighter well, just enough to soak the wick, or it will burn a very long time. During the fettling phase, keeping things simple, I pre-heated with meths, adding it to the wick well much like a Vapalux. A standard Tilley torch will not fit between the top of the lighter and the glass. The meths worked well; the flame did not reach the burner, but did provide just enough heat to get it going. I'm not sure meths would work outside in the cold however. I'm sure the kerosene lighter will, as it really throws a nice flame and you can keep it going for quite a while. An all around interesting and functional lantern. Dan
That is a really stunning looking lantern and a great restoration. I am glad to see your solder repair on the preheater cock is working well. The preheater itself looks quite well designed. It looks almost like a burner from a tubular wick lamp, save for that interesting looking wick. No doubt the idea was to make the paraffin flame burn as efficiently as possible, and not create a sooty mess. Appears to have succeeded! Great Job! Regards, Doug
I notice that it has the 'odd' bush for the control cock ( see my previous posts). I now conclude this bush must be a 'standard' fitting to convert non-standard cocks to X246 tanks, n'est-ce pas?
Thanks for the comments, Gents, Indeed it is a mini wick burner. They did get the air/fuel ratio correct as it is virtually soot free. The upper perforated part behaves like a chimney, if you lift it just a bit while its burning you get a huge sooty fireball, much like if you were to lift a chimney on a running wick lamp. I did read your post, and did some research at the time. I couldn't find the part number for the adapter. Perhaps it was part of the 777A control cock and did not have a number. I'm curious why they just didn't adapt the lighter to the standard Guardsman control cock. Dan
