Hello, last weekend I purchased an old CNR Caboose Lantern in an Antique Shop.
It has 4 lenses 3 Blue and 1 Red .
The Lantern has a rotating base so the colors can be switched.
What would be the signification of the color codes for the Railroad Workers.
Thank you.
If they are blue, they aren’t original. Marker lights did not use blue. Red, green or yellow yes. Blue no.
Blue was used exclusively for men working on or under cars and rolling equipment, which would not be on a caboose marker light.
Perhaps what you are calling blue is actually green. You need to light it up to see what color the lenses are. Many caboose lanterns had three green and one red lens. Normally the red goes to the back of the train when in operation with the greens to the front and sides. Each railroad used their own combination of colors of lenses in a lantern, Red, Yellow or green and was covered in that railroads rule book. I do not know what the CNR color codes were, but you will probably see that answer here soon.
A blue sign, light or whatever means there are caremen working on the car or cut of cars or engines etc. and you are not to even think about touching or moving them as lifes are in jeporady! The blue marker is usually to be removed only by the person puting it in place. I would think that OSHA now has rules concerning this.
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR
Hello scribbelt,
I can’t give you a deffinate answer. However, the signals on the railways in the U.K. had what appeared to be blue spectacle plates and when an oil lamp giving out a yellow flame was illuminated behind the plate the resulting spectacle appeared green.
This may be the case here. Blue + yellow = green.
Regards Colin U.K…
Hello Dave, thank you for the infos, looks like I bought some type of lantern that workers used on the railroad to prevent others not to move the car they are working on.
Hello Colin, there’s a kerosene lamp inside the lantern, I’ll light it up and see if the blue lenses turn green.
Thank you.
Hello Paul, I lighted up the lantern and to my surprise what seemed to be like BLUE lenses turned out to be GREEN.
This is the exact type of Lantern I bought; as you can see in the picture the lenses look like they are BLUE.
Thank you for the infos.
Yep, it’s a marker lamp, two are hung at the rear of a train. You can see the bracket at the bottom to attach it to the side of the caboose, in a holder at the caboose corners.
(Normally) Red to the rear, green (as your test showed the lenses look bluish but actually shine a green light when lit) to the sides/front as mentioned above.
It’s not a “men-at-work” blue lantern to protect equipment being worked on.
Hello Chris, thanks for your response, it’s greatly appreciated.
Nice looking marker lamp. Suitably modified it could make a distinctive porch light.
Marker light colors are an area where things can get confusing. Normally, a moving train displayed red to the rear and green (or yellow on some roads) to the sides. A train stopped in the clear on a siding used to display green (or yellow) to the sides and rear. However, there were occasions when a caboose in motion might display one red and one green - the green indicating that a train approaching from the rear on a parallel track could safely pass on that side.
I’m not holding my breath waiting to hear about the first modeler who arranges to have his marker colors displayed correctly…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where markers were red - period)
Hello Chuck, thanks for the additional infos they are greatly appreciated.
You can not forget extras. Usually white was the marker of a second section of a train. The front markers on the locomotive would be green indicating a following section and the rear marker would be white on the first and second but green on the last section. Company rule books would indicate what color for what lamp of each train. Remember it is not a train until it displays markers. Until then its just a bunch of equipment joined together. This is from a 1959 PRR book of rules after front markers were removed.
19. The following signals will be displayed, one on each side of the rear of every train, as markers, to indicate the rear of the train:
By day, on cars not equipped with fixed electric marker lamps, marker lamps not lighted; on engines and cars equipped with fixed electric marker lamps, marker lamps lighted as at night.
By night, on engines and cars, marker lamps lighted showing red to the rear except in manual block signal system territory when clear of main track, marker lamps lighted showing yellow to the rear.
A train not equipped to display markers will display on rear of train, by day, a red flag; by night, a red light except in manual block signal system territory when clear of main track, a white light.
When cars are pushed by an engine (except when shifting or making up trains in yards) a white light must be displayed on the front of the leading car by night.
When an engine is running backward without cars or at the front of a train pulling cars, a white light must be displayed by night on the front of the movement if not equipped with a headlight.
25. Each car of a passenger train, when practicable, will be connected with the engine by a communicating signal appliance.
Hello locoi1sa, thank you so much for all the detailed infos; they are greatly appreciated.
Uh, no.
You’re talking about something completely different and which should NOT be confused. (And the details in your first paragraph quoted above are also incorrect.)
MARKERS are displayed on the REAR of the train. These are normally red, but will be changed to green (or yellow in the PRR rules above) when a train is in a siding to be passed, and when operating on double track will show green to the inside to show it’s safe to pass on that side.
SIGNALS (flags and classification lights) are displayed on the lead engine (FRONT) of the train. These can be:
White - extra train. (Train not running under a listed timetable schedule.)
Green - additional section(s) following. (Multiple trains running under the same listed timetable schedule.) The LAST section will display NO signals.
Class lights are never red.
Also not correct. Flags/classification lights (again, not “markers”) would have been used right up until timetable operation was completely discontinued, which would have happened considerably after the 1950s. (Different railroads switched to modern radio-based systems at different times.) PRR had a lot of heavy traffic lines that used alternate systems with full signalling and lots of interlocking towers for traffic control, but lighter branches and secondary lines would have still been using the old systems, and timetables would have still been published and applied, even if certain lines didn’t actually
The only variations in the colors of the class lights in the rules comes if you are modeling pre-1900-1910 era. Then it gets pretty railroad and era specific (one small road in the 1880-1890’s used red signals to indicate extras). YMMV in that era, however the majority of the larger roads used the “standard” signal color arrangement even in the early days.
After about 1910 and certainly after WW! the class light/signals scheme of white for extras and green for sections was pretty much universal and remained that way until the mid 1980’s on most roads in N America.
Marker colors (side vs. rear) varied between roads and gradually simplified to just red to the rear by the late 60’s or 70’s (when kerosene lamps went away and electric lights replaced them).
Hello Chris, thanks for the additional infos.
Hello Dave, thanks for the infos.
Classification lights are discussed here: http://trn.trains.com/en/Railroad%20Reference/ABCs%20of%20Railroading/2006/05/Locomotive%20classification%20lights.aspx
Thank you Maxman.