Ditch Lights

[rjemery]

…The era I’m speaking of with the Sante Fe RR and it’s rotating lights would be about '69-70…And thinking back they would have been mostly on F and PA units…Perhaps I witnessed both white and red rotating {Marrs}, lights and yes either one was wildly visible.

I was out of Santa Fe territory by that time. I covered areas from El Paso and Silver City to Raton, Gallup to Albuquerque, and Belen to Clovis.

Believe I’ve read where these type of lights required quite a bit of maintenance so it’s no wonder they were phased out.

Too bad. They were very effective.

Even with today’s “ditch lights” the fact they blink…{on some RR’s}, that in itself surely helps most people to “notice” something is approaching.

No blinking on any CSX, NS, Conrail, Amtrak locomotives or NJ Transit MU units that I have seen. Perhaps in the denser populated areas of the East, the blinking feature, if available, is not used. Most grade crossings are guarded, but I have seen plenty of drivers go around the gates, fortunately with no catastrophic result. To those drivers, it would not matter what kind of lights were in use on the train. They just like to gamble with a 79 mph locomotive.

I also did not see any blinking ditch lights on Amtrak’s Vermonter. There were plenty of unguarded grade crossings in rural Vermont – at least one per mile on average. Motorists are warned primarily by the blare of the locomotive’s horn.

[Modelcar]

…We have both NS and CSX main lines here in and out of Muncie. NS: Newcastle line {north / South}, and the NS Frankfort line {west}, and our CSX double track main east / west through our fair city…ex. NYC.

Both these line’s engines have blinking ditch lights. I do see quite a few UP engines go through here {leading}, and they do not blink.