this morning i was heading across I-10 in Deming, New Mexico when i saw an eastbound UP auto rack train with red lights on the front of the lead loco, one above each number board. it was a wide cab GE loco of some type, with the number boards on the nose. i have never seen this before. i dont think the UP GE’s even have class lights.
what was this?
Could be the engineer put the switch in the wrong position.
RCL?
LC
I didn’t know that ANY locomotive had class lights any more. Guess I will have to look at these GE turbin wannabes. I think, however, that the crew was playing around with a new toy.
It was the first annual Union Pacific “Put red lights on the lead engine day”. The lights you saw were symbolizing the um, goodness of the UP. [:)]
With all of the congestion on the Sunset Route, the crew was probably figuring they would have to run the train backward, so they put red lights on it (I am not serious).
The original post says the lights are near the numberboards, not the usual place for class lights. That is why I asked the above question RCL = Remote Control Locomotive. Often RCLs have lights showing their remote status up on the cab near the number boards. I’m thinking that is what this unit was.
LC
i dont think it would have been remote controlled, but i dont know. they were within yard limits and moving slowly, but it was a full 60+ car autorack train. and i havent heard of them using remote control on their 6 axle GE’s.
but i really have no idea. it was about 4:00 am and still dark so i couldnt see anything else.
Just because a locomotive is an RCL doesn’t mean it has to be used with a remote. Most can be run from the control stand as well.
LC
Any chance the UP rulebook has the old rule for running wrong way, wrong main in Rule 251 current of traffic territory?
could it be somehting as simple as the markers were lef ton by accident?
There are a few left with class lights on UP, I don’t think any are operational though, I’m stumped.
I know NJT has lights like that on the head of their locomotives.
The UP no longer uses classification signals, although many older engines still have them. When the rules for time table and train order operations were dropped, class signals were no longer needed. Being red, they wouldn’t be class signals anyway. The class signal did have a red position to be used as markers for when a engine would be at the end of the train (light power or helper engine). The headlight on dim can also be used to signify the end of the train.
I believe Conrail and has someone else said, others had red lights located where the class lights would be for the above reason. I don’t think the UP or any former UP components had this option. I did find however in my UP loco directory that the UP rebuilt a C40-8 standard cab with components from a wide cab ex-CSX engine that had been wrecked. The UP renumbered it into a wide cab series making me think they used the entire cab assembly. Did any CSX engines have the red light option? That could be where these red lights came from. ( The CSX engine was wrecked in 1994)
late 4th, early xmas?