I have never heard of any on lighted signals. (Hey I just got promoted, so where is my dome car, or whatever?)
…Weren’t the position signal lights of the Pennsy white…? Or were they possibly cassified as “clear”…? Or neutral…I don’t know…They weren’t colored.
New law?
Did you hear this from a reliable source or via rumor? Can you cite the law? Carl Shaver gave some examples of white signals. I have seen lunar signals on UP (former SP) lines and they look white.
Lunar white is used by both BNSF and UP, as well as on the old B&O color-position-light signals to inducate restricted speed.
Clear-lens white was used on the B&O CPLs in some of the lights either above or below the main head. (See Brian Solomon’s book Railroad Signaling, page 61.)
The position-light signals on the Pennsy used a special shade of fog-penetrating yellow for most indications on tall-masted signals (in later years, the stop-and-stay indication at home signals was changed to two horizontal red lights). However, the dwarf signals, which showed the positions with two lights only, were clear-lens white (Solomon’s book erroneously says that they were lunar white). There may still be some of these at Chicago Union Station.
I would like to see a reference cited that states that these white signals are illegal.
We have lunar white signals (since we only travelasohrt distance) much of the time when our shortline RR travels over the CSX’s SAL mainline. Is there any citation for this? Or are white and lunar considered different colors by this law?
Ok, unlike most my questions, this one is sort of borrowed. This will be the last on I use from an old live steam trivia challenge here is the link to it. Look for question 17. http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/trivia/challenge2.html
I know that in railroad pre-history, white was the clear indication, and it was changed to green precisely for the reason that a missing lens could then give a false clear. It’s obvious that white should not be used in the same way as green, amber, or red to convey an indication. But they are still used as an important part of some of these aspects, particularly on the old B&O CPL signals (you need that white over the two green lights to have a clear signal!). So the question is not a good one, and I suspect that the person who made up that quiz doesn’t have a source, either.