am thinking of adding colored LEDs to a caboose to use to test that track wiring is correct, particularly turnout frogs.
this got me wondering if different colored lamps we used on the trailing end of a caboose to indicate direction or for any other purpose?
to my knowledge, no railroad used caboose marker lights for the same purpose as class lights on the locomotives. red to the rear was the usual rule except when the train was in the clear in a siding or yard track adjacent to a main line and then they were turned to show yellow to the rear.
for instance, when a train pulled into a siding to let another one pass, the crew would turn the markers to show yellow to the rear soon as they were in the clear and the switch was lined back. when they went to pull back out on to the main, they would restore them to red.
some roads had red to the rear with green to the side or front and it varied a bit from one road to another. their specific rule books will give you the details.
charlie
I believe there is a federal regulation that says the last car of a train (or an engine if moving by itself outside of a yard area) has to display a red light at night, and a red light or a red flag or markers during the day. Some cabooses had square metal “paddles” that could be attached to the sides of the rear of the caboose (I think using the same brackets used to place the rear lanterns) that were painted red. Technically a red flag stuck in the rear coupler of the last freight car would meet the daytime requirements.
Green, not yellow.
The marker lanterns would normally have 3 green lenses and one red, and show the red lens to the rear and green to the sides and front.
If stopped in a siding to be passed, the lamps would be turned to show green to the rear. If travelling on double track, the lantern on towards the inside would be turned to show green to the rear, the outside lantern would show red to the rear.
This shows a following train that it’s safe to pass.
Some modern steel cabooses had electric markers built in so that kerosene lamps weren’t needed:
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn79713&o=cn
Switch lanterns used yellow or green lenses depening on whether it it a mainline or yard/other switch. 2 yellow or green lenses and 2 red lenses, which would be aimed down the track depending on the position of the switch: normal (yellow or green) or reversed (red).
Not quite correct. While a mainline switch has green and red lenses, yard switches have green and yellow. It is the same for reflectorized targets although adherence to the rule has occasionally become sloppy. This is Canadian practice; possibly the US may be different.
John
For more than you ever wanted to know about proper display of caboose (or last car of a passenger train) markers up to the end of the transition era, consult Peter Josserand’s Rights of Trains. The Dean of Railroad Rules covered the various ways such markers were supposed to be displayed in excruciating detail, with illustrations.
Markers usually displayed two colors, red and either green or yellow, changed by physically turning the lantern in its bracket. The choice of green or yellow was railroad specific, so a query to the prototype’s historical society might be necessary.
Incidentally, Josserand’s definition of a train is, “A locomotive or locomotives, with or without cars, displaying markers.”
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with red markers, JNR standard)