Lionel C-420

[Anonymous]

I recently bought a Lionel LV "Yellow Jacket" Alco C-420. It has two sets of three lights on either side of the headlight. The lights immediately to the left and right of the headlight are yellow and the other two sets are white. Anyone know what they were for?

[Anonymous]

These were the standard classification lights used on locos of that time. A white light indicated it was an "extra" train with the green indicating a "second" section following the train showing the green light.

[Hugh Jampton]

there was also a pair of red ones that were used as rear end markers in a number of situations.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hugh Jampton

there was also a pair of red ones that were used as rear end markers in a number of situations.

Yes, that is true. I thought it was so obivious that I didn't need to post that, but I guess I might have been wrong. [;)]

[Anonymous]

After submitting the above question, I did more research and all pointed to the opinions above. I therefore trepidaciously did "surgery" on my Lionel model and wired some green grain of wheat bulbs into the forward headlight circuit to light up when forward motion is indicated and red grain of wheat bulbs into the reverse. I left the white lenses in the correct position but not illuminated. The wiring was pretty straight forward but reassembling the model was a gigantic headache, getting all the wires in place and bringing down the shell without pinching anything or impeding the flywheels - there is very little space due to the narrow body. However, I am now satisfied to see some colored lights in operation rather than the constant-on whites ones of the original model. Thanks to the contributors above.