I’ve seen photos of KCS locomotives with Oscilating headlights that are lit as late as 2001:
Example 1 (Taken 2000)
Example 2 (Taken 2001)
Example 3 (Taken 2002)
However, a lot of the newer photos show that the lights have been replaced with steel plates
When did KCS do away with these lights, and why?
Thanks
Maintenance. Too many moving parts to break.
They and just about everyone else did away with them the instant the FRA said they were no longer required…see Larrys answer above.
I guess in some meaure, the alternating ditch lights replaced the need for them.
The one thing that I always thought was pretty cool was the old ocsillating lights on CNW steam engines the went in a figure 8 pattern. Seems like it would help catch your attn.
There is no question that the oscillating lights were effective, and may well have prevented countless grade crossing accidents, however they did involve moving parts. FRA frowns on installed equipment not working, and they did break.
Up until not all so long ago, nobody thought of ditch/auxiliary lights as a grade crossing safety device. Their mandated use reduced/eliminated the need for oscillating lights, and away they went.
Thanks, but the thing I still don’t understand is how long KCS kept them. Remember that one picture I found was 2001. Almost all Class Is (Or is KCS a Class II?) Anyways, most big railroads did away with them long before that. And On all of those photos, the locomotives had ditch lights AND Oscilating headlights? Why is that?
They would remove them only when the locomotive went in for any other major repair…as long as they worked, why spend the money to shop the locomotive just to remove the lights?
You don’t take a locomotive out of service unless you have to.
They might shop the locomotive if the mechanism failed, and remove it then, because the FRA says if it there, it has to work.
That’s why you can still find some of BNSF’s old SD9s with the orange rotating beacon on the roof…as long as it works, and the locomotive is in service, why shop it.