I have collected many many locos. I have no particular system of setting up the operation of the healights and rear lights. I don’t have any locos with extra lighting, ditch lights, mars, beacons etc, except one E8 that has a mars light.
I don’t have any knowledge of this topic either, and no sensors or so on for Rule 17 lighting which I don’t understand either.
I just set the lights to work as I like them with particular loco, usually on in the direction of travel and off on the other end, or dimmed.
But now I am getting most locos converted with the decoders, so that I have several SW series and RS series switchers for example, that I would like to operate with matching lighting behaviour… and now my Decoder Pro makes matching CVs easier.
QUES: What is a basic or common lighting procedure for a switcher (not concerning complexities of Rule 17)…or does it vary from rail company to company, or region to region, or purpose of operation.
Or, basic ques…do locos usually operate “with both ends lit regardless” or would this be unrealistic?
As a general rule (and I mean General rule) modern diesels at the head of a train run with the head light on bright. If there multible locos, only the lead engine has it’s head light on. The rest have their number boards and step safety lights on. If a locomotive is at the rear of the train, it would either have it’s red classification lights that face the rear on or the rear faceing head light on dim to protect the rear of the train. When the train has stopped, usually the head light is left on dim, again to protect the train. Ditch lights are usually on steady when the train is moving, but flash back and forth when aproaching grade crossings or when starting to move, or when entering a yard. Again, this is a generalzation of their use. One other thing. A loco by itself would have the headlight in the direction of travel on bright, the other on dim. An engine by itself is still considered a train. Ken
Post 1930’s engines display a headlight on brite to the front by day and night.
It can dim its light when in yards, approaching stations or other trains on adjacent main tracks.
Switch engines display a headlight to the front and rear by day and by night.
Trailing engines have their headlights out.
The only engine that should have its numberboard lit at night is the one cleared. So if you are running the extra 2345 west, then the ONLY engine with the numberboard lit should be the 2345 (regardless of its position in the consist.) If for some reason, engine 456 is in the lead, its number board would be out and the 2345’s would be lit.
Keep in mind too that the common model locomotive set up with headlights that reverse to only light in the direction of travel is extremely rare in the prototype.
Except for Rule 17 issues, there really was no set of rules regarding lighting until the requirements came in for the “Canadian” style three light system (headlight and two lower running lights creating a triangle shape) in the 1980’s or '90’s. Generally railroads applied Mars lights to their passenger F or E-unit diesels (and a few steam engines too) in the upper headlight, with the lower being a standard headlight. Freight F’s engines generally just had one normal headlight with no lower headlight in the door.
In the sixties-seventies-eighties many engines had flashing yellow strobe lights of one type or another, most of these were removed when the Canadian style lighting came about.
Not true. Well into the 1950s, steam engines ran with the headlight “OFF” except when entering tunnels, in falling snow or other weather bad enough that, in the engineer’s opinion, the headlight should be turned “ON”, otherwise it remained “OFF”.
Remember, a turbogenerator uses steam. Steam that on a hand bomber was raised by the fireman’s sweat and nobody wants to waste steam by running, in daylight, with the headlight “ON”. So, if you model the early 1950s, headlights on steam should generally be “OFF” in daylight hours. Check your favourite railway’s rule book for headlight rules for the year you are modelling.
Because the headlight has always been “ON” since the 1960s and full desielisation, doesn’t mean it was that way in the 1950s and earlier.
Great topic! What about E and F Units that have two front headlights in the 1950’s timeframe? Was there are rule about which light, upper, lower or both, to be “ON” during day, night or under certain conditions? I see some pictures with the upper light “on” and some with the lower light “on”.
Usually, with the twin-light E’s and F’s, one light was the Mars light, and the other was a normal headlight. On most, The top light was the Mars light (which oscillates in a horizontal figure-8) while the lower light was a headlight. Some C&NW commuter service locos had the top light as a red Mars light, to protect the rear of the train when heading back to Chicago with the engine pushing, in reverse.
Great, thanks for the info. For whatever reason, I did not know what the deal was with Mars lights - hadn’t had a reason to know before.
I’m modeling a RI E6A for the Rocky Mountain Rocket, and I need to add the lower light to the LL N-scale E6A unit. Was planning to install DCC and was trying to determine how to setup the lighting. Given what you’ve said, I can likely keep them both “On” which would ease the installation.
If you’re installing DCC, most decoders have, I believe, a Mars light function. I’d hook the top light up as a Mars light, and control it with the appropriate CV function…
Thanks to you all for the helpful responses. I all makes sense…, shovelling coal needlessly for a generator on a 1950s steamer, so lights off…lighting both ends of a switcher always. etc. etc.
This is true but not just for CNW commuter service. if you look, almost all CNW locos at one point or another had strobes. and alot of them kept them right up untill the UP takeover
There have been times I’ve seen local trains run with the headlight “bright” for the direction travelling and the headlight on dim on the trailing unit. I’ve been told this is to make switching easier becuase the headlight is already there to protect the other unit or if its a turn, when they get done and return to the yard all they have to do is turn on the ditchlights
Generally a Mars light would be clear same as the lower constant headlight. The red would usually only come on if the brakes were put into “emergency”. (The upper light often had two lights, a clear and a red one.) But I’m sure there were exceptions.
In the 1950’s there really were no overall rules about when lights had to be on or not etc. It was pretty much up to each railroad to set rules if they wanted to, otherwise it was the crew’s decision. Kinda like here in MN you have to turn your car headlights on if it’s raining or snowing, that law has only been around maybe 15 years or so. Before that you used your own judgment.
As for DCC I’ve done it both ways. I have an E unit I set up so that F0 turned the lower light on, and F7 turned the Mars light in the upper light on. But I also did a passenger F7 where hitting F0 turned on both lights. If you play around with the CV’s you’ll find it’s not too hard to get it the way you want it…and yes pretty much every engine decoder has a Mars light option, most have a series of different effects for various types of lights.
(BTW I was watching a DVD of NYC steam in the fifties, I noticed most of the steam engines did have their lights on, but not always.)
On some roads (SP, EL & UP 4-8-4 #844) the red mars was only activated during emergency brake applications, reason being if a derailment or other emergency situation occured, red would be displayed to any opposing movements. SP had twin beams that also employed a red light and fixed clear light in a common housing, common on switchers by Baldwin.