Does anyone know it this ever happend with the lower headlight being cut down flush with the nose and covered with a plate?
Mike
I don’t think it would be hard to do. Only issue I can think of is that most railroads that had two-headlight E or F units usually used the lower headlight as the normal one, with the upper one being a Mars or other flashing / gyrating light. I know CNW had some two-headlight passenger F’s where they put a bell in the place of the top headlight and just used the bottom, or painted over the top one and just used the bottom.
The Southern Railway simply plated over the lower light assembly from the inside and didn’t bother to remove the circular housing as seen in this photo:
In most cases (except very early E units), the lower headlight was on a nose door. This could easily be removed and replaced by a new door, with or without a headlight.
A complete new door skin could be applied easily to remove a headlight.
Some Santa Fe passenger F units arrived without lower headlights and very rapidly gained them.
M636C