An albumen silver print cabinet card produced by Reeds & Anderson, whose imprint appears in script on the lower front of the mount along with the studio address at First Street and Clark Avenue, Raton, New Mexico. Raton was a significant railroad town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, situated near Raton Pass, and the props carried by both subjects are consistent with railroad employment. The studio style and dress place this image in the late 1880s to early 1890s.

The two unidentified men stand facing one another in a full-length pose, each holding a railroad signal lantern at his side. Both lanterns are of the wire-caged globe type associated with railroad brakemen and conductors of the period. The figure on the left wears a bowler hat, bow tie, three-piece suit, and a watch chain visible at the vest, while the figure on the right wears a soft-brimmed hat, bow tie, sack coat with a pocket square, and holds his lantern at waist level. Both men direct their attention downward toward their railroad pocket watches, apparently synchronizing the time before departing.

The reverse of the mount is blank with no printed studio design or inscription. The plain verso combined with the First Street and Clark Avenue address and the New Mexico imprint make this an uncommon example of territorial-era commercial photography from a railroad community.