If you mean to ask if the lamp is one that would be used for markers on the outside of a caboose, then no. A lantern like this is one that would be used on the interior for illumination.
That's a nice lamp! As for "caboose lantern" - see the comments above! I took a ride in the Bytown Railway Society's caboose at the Canadian Museum of Science and TEchnology last weekend, and they have a similar lamp mounted over the conductor's desk. The main difference is that the heat shield at the top was a separate part that was screwed directly to the ceiling, and its edges were fluted. Andrew
Somewhere in my parents' garage is a caboose lantern on a spring shock absorber kind of anchor so that it could swing a little bit with the movements of the caboose over the rails.
Sorry that this thread is so old -- the picture is no longer available. I've been looking into caboose marker lanterns, such as this one (attached). There is red and green on this one, but I have seen blue or blue-green on others, some clear, but always red. Which orientation would the lanterns have been while the train was underway? Red on back I suppose? Thanks.
Red to the rear, yellow or green to the sides. Blue is for mechanical dept. use indicating that workmen are on under of between equipment, clear or white would be for the head end of the train or the leading end indicating an extra train not on the timetable schedule. Green can be shown on the leading end or head end of a train to indicate that there is a section of the train following , when these signals are displayed they are accompanied by appropriate whistle signals to call attention to signals displayed for a section following. Caboose marker lights are always red to the rear of the train. Randy