What is it? Metal object found in woods....

Maybe five years ago I found this in the woods adjacent to a walking trail.  I am just now getting around to cleaning it up and contemplating its origin.  It seems to be solid brass - it was totally encrusted with crud when discovered.  The finned side was particularly thick with some sort of black stuff partially filling the voids between the fins.  The slash marks on the back side look to be recent damage consistent with other evidence on the trail of boy scout hatchet misbehavior.  

Hint:  the trail was an old 19th century railway bed - trains stopped running about 100 years ago and the rails were reclaimed for scrap steel during WWII.  This is possibly steam railroad related.

Follow up question:  What should I do with it?

My first guess was possibly part of an air horn, missing the trumpet part but no images I can find support that. 

I was wondering if it could be part of a mounted caboose lantern or similar, but I'm not having any luck finding anything similar.

I'm assuming there is a tube/pipe from the base that blows out through the hole above the three tangs?  If so, that would mean either air for something like a horn or fuel for some type of lamp.  With the fins probably being decorative, I'd go with a horn of some sort.  Not sure how the trumpet part would attach to the three tangs or if the trumpet contains the reed to make sound.

As far as what to do with it, I have no clue.

-Rob

Is the base hollow? Is there a passage between the mounting surface and the hole on the flat side?

That shape and opening that looks like for a pipe (is that a second opening?) reminded me of diaphragm control valves from my Navy days in the engine room.

Base is hollow AND threaded.  Outlet on top of back is a compression fitting nipple.  Two additional threaded openings are (or were) occupied by steel plugs.  Object is hollow - something flowed through it... liquid, steam or compressed air???

That looks like the end of a curtain rod to me. 

Steam whistle?

Ornamental fitting for old house radiator?

I'm going to guess that it's part of a gas lamp or wall sconce. 

That thing had a lot of stuff attached to it!

Almost certainly railroad-related.  Who do we know that knows a lot about old trains?

Given the material of construction, I'd guess plumbing-related, likely steam plumbing.  Possibly the rear portion of a horn?  Just a WAG.

Toyman! said:

I'm going to guess that it's part of a gas lamp or wall sconce. 

 

This is my thought as well.

Steam heat fitting for passenger car, or gas lamp base for interior lighting is my guess.

@NickD is the fellow to ask...

Recon1342 said:

@NickD is the fellow to ask...

I keep coming back in here hoping to hear from our vintage train expert! 

TJL (Forum Supporter) said:

Recon1342 said:

@NickD is the fellow to ask...

I keep coming back in here hoping to hear from our vintage train expert! 

I dropped a link in the Grassroots railroad sports thread. I'm sure he'll be by presently...

Sorry for the late response, I was busy photographing a steam locomotive, fittingly enough.

Hmmm, that's a baffling one. 

Probably not a part of a horn, if the trains really stopped running there 100 years ago. Horns didn't become popular until the diesel era, ie. the 1950s.

Doesn't look like anything off a steam whistle:

Not a marker lamp off a locomotive or caboose, since those were globular and typically just had an oil wick, until they became electric later on.

Could be something off of Pintsch gas lighting, since that fits the era (popular in 1890-1910), and would have fittings. Fell out of favor, since when you had a wreck with those old wooden passenger cars, these were damn near guaranteed to light them off and make things much worse.

Any idea on what the railroad was? Or at least the region/locale?

Everyone seems stumped. Your best bet is to appear on Antiques Roadshow

This was the old Norfolk and Southern railroad.  The object was found about a mile south of the old Princess Anne Courthouse.

Meanwhile, in the late 19th century, a spur of the main rail line ... opened that carried passengers and cargo southward through Princess Anne Courthouse, Pungo, Back Bay and on to Munden Point. The railroad provided farmers and hunters from northeastern North Carolina and Princess Anne County a more efficient way to ship fresh produce, fish and wild game to markets in Norfolk or points north.

The railroad, however, was best known as the “sportsmen’s special” because wealthy recreational hunters from the northeast used it to access the hunting lodges in southern Princess Anne County ... in the early 1900s.

Some sort of steam resonance chamber? Like you see on car intake arrangements?