I was wondering something the other day. Why have Locomotive makers stop putting strobe lights on top of the engines. Like on the old amtrak engines FP40’s there’s two strobe lights that always flash as the train operates. Down the tracks and the older engines still have them like when. I see a Soo line engine coming by my job. They have the strobe lights on top of there engines but the newer Cp engines and UP and any other railroad that has newer loco’s don’t have them. Did the ditch lights on the front of the loco’s replace the strobe lights or did the railroads just decide not to order them anymore but. I kinda liked seeing them on the engines cause you could always tell when a train was coming by seeing the light flashing.
the main reason they switched to ditch lights was that the strobes have moving parts, while the ditch lights are fully electrical. (no lubrication, no jamming, no motor replacing, ect.)
Strobe lights are fully electronic, no moving parts. MARS lights had moving parts. Rotary lights are not true strobes. Strobes flash in one direction only
Railfan619, go **HERE**
I think you mean the yellow or orange rotating strobe beacon on the tops of engines. I kinda liked them as well. BN always had these on the top of their units, especially the older GE U30Cs, and SP and SOO Line, off the top of my head, had them on most of theirs as well.
I have operated older units with these strobe lights, and one feature of them was if they were rotating, you could tell from the ground or outside if the reverser was centered or not on the engine. If it was, it would not rotate, and if it was in forward or reverse, it would. I am sure this was the same feature with most, but someone can correct me if I am wrong.
Ditch lights pretty much replaced the rooftop beacons and strobes. WSOR 701 still has the blinky light on the long hood. Just a white strobe. The E-units have orange beacons on top. There are 4 separate lights in the housing. They don’t move, but there is a circuit hooked up to it that flashes the lights in a pattern.
If the beacon was hooked up properly, it would only flash if the reverser was in forward or reverse. Some WSOR egines had that, most seemed not to. 701 and the E-units just have an on-off switch for the strobe.
CNW used them as well. Some would rotate like you said, others would only rotate if the throttle was open. Some were electronic strobes, some were actual rotating beacons (like a lighthouse).
Some of the ground crewmen liked them, mostly for the reasons you mentioned, but I (as an engineer) hated them. When switching in the dark, with either freight cars or a building next to the locomotive, the strobes would constantly ruin my night vision (as well as give me a headache).
I have heard the legend that the operating steam engines in the yard could be noticed by the smoke and steam but the actual operating diesels were hard to spot. Thus rotating beacons were installed to indicate where to find the switchers that were on duty. It also allowed the yardmaster to keep track of crews that might decide to take a nap. Miinnesota Transporation Museum acquired 5 SW switchers from the Lake Superior Terminal and Transfer (a union railroad in Duluth-Superior). They all had amber rotating beacons. Over the years as we rewired and painted the cabs these have been removed. The rule book says the amber beacons have to operate (if installed). Our solution was to uninstall them. The amber beacons are not mentiioned as marker or warning lights for grade crossings or other trains (such as what lights have to operate at what level for crossings or meets).
Oops, that what I was thinking of. Sorry for the confusion.