I’m sure this has been asked before, but I wasn’t able to find anything in the searching so far. I’m building a bowser pennsy T1 and am putting in DCC and sound, what I’m trying to find out is, what colours would be used on the marker lights on the front of the engine and on the rear of the tender? I’m assuming the tender back are red, but the front I’m not sure. On an aside, I just had the Tsunami decoder put in one of my GS-4’s and it is absolutely incredible… Many thanks Alfred
The colored lights on the front of the PRR T1 would be classification lights unless the locomotive was running in reverse at the rear of a train - very unlikely for a T1.
According to Peter Josserand (Rights of Trains) these are the rules for classification lights/flags (flags were required during daylight hours.)
If there are two or more locomotives in consist, only the first locomotive would display classification flags/lights.
Regular train, running on timetable authority - no flags, lights dark. This would have been the most common situation for a T1 powering a scheduled train.
Regular train running in multiple sections on timetable authority - all but the last section would display green flags or green lights. The last section would be no flags, lights dark (which told lineside operators that the entire timetable-authorized movement had passed.) When the PRR put the T1 into service, many passenger trains were run in two or even three sections.
Extra train, not listed in the employee timetable - white flags, white markers. PRR could have put a T1 on a one-time movement to carry players and fans to a football game or similar event. (They didn’t last long enough to power railfan specials.)
Hope this helps
Chuck (who models a prototype that scheduled EVERYTHING and didn’t use classification lights as such)
Many thanks for the help. That answered the question, at least as I needed.
Alfred
Actually this touches on one of my pet peeves about modelRR terminology vs.real RR terminology (one of the others is meet/pass…the first involves trains in opposite directions the second the same direction).
MRRs tend to use the word markers when they mean class lights. The post above is absolutely correct regarding class lights (the light fixture generally found at about the 10and 2 O 'clock positions on the smokebox front. The Pennsylvania however did have marker lights (in addition to class lights) as permanent fixtures on their steam engines. If you check a picture of a PRR steam engine (especially pre-WWII) you’ll find two light fixtures on the end of the pilot beam. These were markers and would only be illuminated when the engine was running in reverse. They would show (on the PRR, N&W, Santa Fe and, I think Rio Grande) red to the rear and yellow to the sides. On all other RRs they would show red to the rear and green to the sides. The PRR is the only RR I’m aware of that had permanent marker lights on the pilot beams. Most other would place markers on the pilot beams as needed. The SP (and possibly others) had permanent marker brackets in the appropriate spots on the pilot beams and these can be seen in photos w/ sufficient detail clarity. Lacking a regular bracket I suppose you would just stick the markers in the approproate place and hope they stayed put.
Thanks for the additional info, Jim.
Your comment on pilot beam lamps sent me back into my collection of Japanese loco plans and photos - and led to an interesting discovery. Every JNR loco had lamp brackets on all four “corners,” at or just above pilot beam level. A few of the most modern classes had permanently installed single-lens fixtures. Others were carrying oil lamps - again, only a single lens. (These were modern locos with electric headlights and generators, as well as antiques.)
This opens a whole new can of worms. What were the rules for displaying low level lights on the front of a Japanese steam loco? I know that there would be markers on the south end of a northbound pusher - but that’s the only thing I’m sure of.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in 1964)