Railworks America

I notice the GP7s on the PRR route have their headlights on at both ends. Is this normal practice in the US

Dick C.

KCJones wrote:I notice the GP7s on the PRR route have their headlights on at both ends. Is this normal practice in the US

Yep. Most if not all US diesels have front/ rear sets of lights.
Non-normal practice though is to have both sets active at same time which I think I saw last time I ran HSC

-barnez

Thanks. Yes that is what I mean. Should both sets be on at the same time. If not, what lights should be carried on the back of a pusher loco and/or one running light.

Ah - misread - guess I skipped over a word in your O.P.

No - both should not be active at the same time.

Obviously the front facing lights should be on - but on the lead loco only. Modern practice for trailing locos (pushers) is to have red rear-facing lights active, but I don't think that was the case in the 1950s (I don't believe GP7s were equiped with rear-facing reds). I believe trailing locos in that era would be dark.

-barnez

I don't have the PRR yet, is there a pusher? Barnez is right, that era, they didn't have a red light on the pusher. I do see two lead locomotives, the second loco should not have any lights AFAIK, just the lead loco.

Thanks Guys. That is the information I need. I thought the PRR GP7s were wrong with both headlights on. Front and back.

Dick

Actually, in those days the last vehicle on any train, whether it was the last car or the trailing end of the pusher locomotive, would have displayed red markers to the rear. That had been a standard practice in the rulebook form the earliest editions I've seen, which date from before World War I. An interesting technicality in the rule book is that a train is defines as any consist displaying markers, whether this includes a locomotive or not.

In the case of diesels, by this time, a red lens was included with the built-in classification lights so they could double as marker lights if need be. Classification lights were typically either dark, for trains operating on timetable authority, or white, for extra trains. In some cases, typically on railroads with heavy passenger service, classification lights would be green, indicating that an additional section of the train was following.

philmoberg wrote:In the case of diesels, by this time, a red lens was included with the built-in classification lights so they could double as marker lights if need be. Classification lights were typically either dark, for trains operating on timetable authority, or white, for extra trains. In some cases, typically on railroads with heavy passenger service, classification lights would be green, indicating that an additional section of the train was following.

Interesting info - I'm fairly certain that RSC did not equip the GP7s with red tails though.

Ya - there are a several freights that have pushers in HSC

-barnez

What the DPU, or pusher, shows on the rear of the train today also varies by railroad, and even division. The NS DPU's on my local sub have the main headlights on, casting rearward and running dim. There are no red marker lights displayed.

SMMDigital wrote:What the DPU, or pusher, shows on the rear of the train today also varies by railroad, and even division. The NS DPU's on my local sub have the main headlights on, casting rearward and running dim. There are no red marker lights displayed.

The UP does the same with DPU's on the van buren sub

Aside from maintenance, isn't this also one of the reasons NS removed the inset markers on ex-Conrail equipment?

Rules state that a dimmed headlight can be used in place of marker lights. But there is a catch 22 to it, if a locomotive has marker lights, they have to work. Even if they are plated over. So it's cheaper to remove them completely. Passenger locomotives must still have them (I think). Almost all of the Class I's have removed them. Only CSX (with it's ex. Conrail stuff) and Canadian National (on units set up for DPU) still use red markers.

But in the case of the time period HSC is set in, philmoberg has it correct.

http://trn.trains.com/en/Railroad%20Ref ... ights.aspx

On the subject of headlights. I noticed that there is a change to the method of turning on and off. I now use the "H" key to toggle both on and off. Or is this a glitch on my copy?

it may not be standard practice to have both ends on at once, but as i recall seeing in a photo yesterday i seen a CN GP9 pulling a stack train in the vancouver yard with its rear light on shining onto the container. i also noticed that the pensy GP7 has low and high beam lights instead of switching to the other end, very cool.

jamesphh wrote:On the subject of headlights. I noticed that there is a change to the method of turning on and off. I now use the "H" key to toggle both on and off. Or is this a glitch on my copy?

I've always used H or SHIFT+H to turn lights on and off.