Why do locomotives no longer use oscillating headlamps, like the ones that were used on the “F” series locomotives?
I remember when I was twenty years old and hitch-hiking across the United States, I was somewhere in Kansas, late at night, when I heard that locomotive from a long way off, as it got closer, it became louder and louder, and long before I actually saw the locomotive, I saw that beam of light flashing all over the place.
It was downright spooky!
Maintenance of the oscillating mechanism for starters.
FRA rules state if a safety appliance is in place, like oscillating lights, it must work, and the lights were getting very expensive to keep up, plus the new law in regards to ditch lights made the oscillating light redundant and expensive.
That’s why you see a lot of locomotives from that era with one of the head light or nose light fixtures plated over.
They always were, and still are, an option available to the railroad purchasing the locomotives. They aren’t ordered very often, for the reasons that Ed cited, but Metra (here in Chicagoland) has them on both its locomotives and its cab cars, and they’re in use all the time. Metra also uses ditch lights that flash whenever the bell is activated.
Chicago’s Metra still uses them on some of it’s trains but the light does not sweep as much and is not as bright.
It may be wise for METRA due to the many street crossings and the many mainly commuter predestrians that continue to cross in front of the commuter trains ?
I’m not sure about the other lines, but the cab cars on the Southwest Service don’t have oscillating signal lights, but they do have the alternating ditch lights.
Oscillating signal lights will grab your attention in an open area, but they don’t do much good in built-up areas with restricted visibility.
I don’t recall seeing them on the Burlington Race Track when coming in on Amtrak #6.