Hey I have a Santa Fe GP-50 and per photos I’ve seen, I’ve put a rotary beacon on the cab. It has sat up there unlit for a while, but now with the switch to DCC it is operational now. Thing is, I have no idea when the prototype would use it. I model 1990, so it still has the headlights at the top of the cab and no ditch lights, but when does, (or did) Santa Fe turn on the beacon?
Much Thanks!
I’m pretty sure the Beacons where used before ditch lights. So I’m assuming it would be in use at Crossings. I’m not positive on this though, it’s my assumptions. Hopefully someone more knowable will come along.
By the early 70’s, AT&SF was using beacons. I remember new SD40-2 engines with the beacons mounted on a platform above the firemans roof area. The beacons are normally lit and rotating if the engine is the lead unit in a consist. Ditch light did not become mandatory until the 90’s.
Jim
On this fantastic youtube clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmWGxJccx1I the leading tunnel motor has what i think is a gyralight, is this the same thing?? Ive offten wondered myself when and why they were used
That kind of works like a beacon, I’ve also heard a headlight rotating in a circular motion was also called a Gyralite, which SP also had. I think Gyralite is in fact a company and not a partiuclar lighting effect.
As I recall the Santa Fe was using rotating becons in the 70’s in the Bay Area. The SP didn’t start using them until late SP/SF merger talks. They were so dirty you couldn’t see them anyway.
Gyralite is a company name. SP used there Mars, head, light on the 4400 class 4-8-4 locomotives. The Mars light rotated in a figure eight pattern.
Rob
The GP50s were delivered with the rotary beacons installed. I have not been able to establish when the beacons were removed or when the headlights were placed in the lower position.
The EMD GP38s and SD45s delivered in 1970 were the first new power with rotary beacons. See Volume Two of The Santa Fe Diesel by Dr. Cinthia Priest.
Not sure if this helps any, but the only time I remember seeing Santa Fe beacons lit were at the Barstow yards. Typically the locos would be either moving very slowly or sitting still. I remember seeing this many times out the window of the Desert Wind and Southwest Chief.
However where I live (former Santa Fe secondary line now the BNSF transcon near Yorba Linda CA) I don’t recall ever seeing a Santa Fe loco with it’s beacon lit. Wish I had taken more photos and videos back then. Used to be singe track, blue and yellow Santa Fe with the occasional Kodachrome, and the recently re-routed Desert Wind. Now it’s triple track, with countless BNSF, several daily Metrolink commuters and the Southwest Chief.