I recently purchased this. Why, cuz I just loved the heck out of it.
My original plan was to add electric light. But now that I have it, and I see that it is all there, I'm thinking I want to light it. But, I don't want to burn down the garage or blow myself up!!
Any advice, assistance, knowledge, info... would be greatly appreciated!!
Would it run on kerosene? Could I use a modern lantern fuel?
Also any history on it would be great!!!

Steve what you have is a caboose lantern,
If there are not any holes in the "fount" AKA the container for the kerosene under the burner and the wick will move up and down to control the flame it would work fine but you'll also want to get the Pyrex chimney that's held in by the four tension springs around the wick all the parts are available online look at Jeppo's railroad lantern page it has links to parts at Krise Depot that has reasonable prices for the parts he also has the history of the lantern how it was used and what the different color lenses represent.
Careful they can be addicting just like anything else....
Take a look at it for any initials such as UPRR, UP, MP etc..
most are marked and it will tell you which railroad yours came from.

Here are a few of mine.


this is the Pyrex chimney that you'll need to keep the flame under control.

I too am attracted to RR stuff. http://www.jeffpolston.com/lantern.htm

One of my favorite collectibles ! Nice piece !

Sorry for the sideways pics ? Can't seem to fix

Great info as always guys!! Thanks so much!! And great looing collections! And Jim, thanks for the cool link! Some neat info there for sure! And thanks to Bob Bishop via PM for info about a guy named Bradley Ralston.
Very excited to own this piece!! Who don't love trains!! I look forward to some day getting an original locomotive bell to go with it.
Thanks again guys!!

Lantern is stamped ACL. Which from I've googled was the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad out of Florida. 1900-1967.

Any idea of the date of this lamp?

I am NEVER going near a lantern from now on. I have caressed one in the past and thought what if..... I got to be more careful! LOL

There's really no way to give it an exact date just the era they were used.
As info the ACL ceased to exist in 1967 when they became the Seaboard Coast Line but they had used the name Atlantic Coast Line starting in 1871 but being that it's an Armspear lantern it'd be after 1902 as that's when the company changed its name from Railroad Signal and Lamp company.
They were produced up to the 1960's but were manufactured by the Adam's Westlake company.

Here's a site that can give you some more info on them.

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

Now it's Super Bowl Time!
Go Broncos!!!!

Are all the lenses the same color? Most of the time they have 3 green and one red.

It all depends on color as to what it would mean there were a lot of different color lanterns and each represent a certain condition that the train crews or other departments have to comply with.
We still use some of these today but with radio communication being reliable most of the old lanterns and lamps have no use we really only use red which means stop, blue which means there are mechanical forces on the equipment and it cannot be moved or coupled into without mechanical giving authority, there's also a white light that goes on a track where there are occupied cars such as coaches or track dept employee office cars.