I’m modeling the PRR Elmira Branch, operationally in 1944, infrastructure in 1910, and equipment going back to 1900. With that said, did any of the I1-class 2-10-0s have oil headlights when built? I’ve seen a couple of photos of oil headlights on 2-8-0s, 2-8-2s, and various other engines built around the time of WW1, but none of the I1’s.
Side note: If anyone has any good photos of any PRR engine with an oil headlight, those would be really helpful. I have a Bowser L1 2-8-2 that lost its headlight sometime before I got it.
The pilot engine built in December, 1916 had an oil headlight as did the 122 copies built by Altoona in 1918 and 1919. There was a larger group (475) ordered in 1922 and 1923 and built by Baldwin in 1923 that had turbo-generators and electric headlights.
May I recommend the books by Alvin F. Stauffer that would be an excellent resource for anyone interested in PRR steam power and its developement? They are Pennsy Power 1 and, 2. The books were published in the 1960s, after PRR steam was extinct. The photos date from the oil headlight era, to the last gasps of many classes, and are black and white, which in my opinion renders detail much better than color. Check the usual booksellers, they are available.
Yes, the L-1s (2-8-2) were first delivered with oil headlights similar to those on th I-1 as in the above photos.
On one of my trips to the Model Railroader offices downtown in Milwaukee in the very early '70s, I mentioned to the late Bill Rau that I was surprised to find photos of a K4 Pacific with a box oil headlight. Bill was from Pennsylvania, lived there most of his life (until joining the office staff of MR) and assured me there had been oil headlights on Pennsy locos until the late teens-early '20s. He told me the story of how on certain divisions their oil headlights burned brighter than on other divisions. Then leaned back, grinned, and said itwas quite simple: “They put mothballs in the oil reservoirs!” BTW, the photos are in “The Pennsylvania Railroad: A Pictorial History,(1967),” a fairly good reference, though not as extensive as others. (Mine is the Bonanza reprint.)
