It was somewhat before my time, but I imagine that the first time a locomotive was operated after sundown the crew figured a way to hang a lantern, wick turned down to minimum, where the light would fall on the gauges, gage glass and petcocks.
When electric headlights were introduced, the same power supply undoubtedly illuminated a low-wattage cab bulb or two.
Cab lights would never have been bright, because the engineer and fireman had to preserve their night vision to see what was going on in the darkness beyond the illumination range of the headlight.
Chuck
Not sure if this was answered anywhere but here it goes:
When did cab lighting first appear on steam locomotives? By this I mean illuminated cluster panels (gauges) and etc. How were engineers and firemen able to run overnight trains?
"Look away...look south"
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