Hello everyone,
As I understand it some railroads in the U.S. and Canada use flashing ditchlights and others do not.
I believe that, for example BNSF do flash and C.P. don't. therefor if a BNSF loco goes onto C.P. is it allowed to lead in a train or does the engineer have a switch on the control panel to allows him to make the ditch lights constant and of coarse vice-versa.
Just curious, Thanks Colin Cambridge U.K.
I'll have to pay closer attention, but I think all railroads in the US have to flash the ditch lights at grade crossings, so I'm sure it's engineer controlled.
I'll be watching your thread to see what kind of responses you get, just for my own curiosity. I think ditch lights became required in the early 70's ? But I'm probably wrong on that.
Mike.
My You Tube
From what I have seen, many eastern railroads that operate in the the NORAC rules seem to like flashing ditch lights. I could find nowhere in the rules that the ditch lights have to flash.
Most western railroads operate under the GCOR rules. BNSF engines seem to be set up either way. Usually the genset's operate with flashing ditch lights, and most road power does not. I have seen rebuilt GP38's with flashing ditch lights on occasion.
What is fedrally mandated is that any engine moving over a grade crossing cannot exceed 20 mph if they do not have operational ditch lights. There are exemptions/waivers of 'historic' locomotives....
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
CPPedlerif a BNSF loco goes onto C.P. is it allowed to lead in a train or does the engineer have a switch on the control panel to allows him to make the ditch lights constant and of coarse vice-versa.
.
Information overload ahead ....
http://www.trainweb.org/gyra/dc_lts.htm
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
I did ditch light installations during my 6 years on Conrail...1988-1994. Their on/off switch was a breaker in the control cabinet...nothing on the control stand. It was the crew responsiblity to switch them on. They had to be on all the time while the train was in operation. They only would flash when the horn was used. Once that flashing module was actuated it would time out after so many seconds unless the horn was used again, and lights would on steady again.
When we would send out loco sets for trains we would lead with Conrail because most foreign roads did not have cab signals...specifically. Ditch lights were still a fairly new feature at that time. But...if a foreign locomomotve was safety equipped to Conrail specs it would be permitted to lead. I would think the ditch lights would be dealt with in the same way now.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
crhostler61Their on/off switch was a breaker in the control cabinet...nothing on the control stand. It was the crew responsiblity to switch them on. They had to be on all the time while the train was in operation.
I liked the idea of this separate switch because normally when running in heavy fog where you were almost blinded by the bright light reflecting from the headlights, you could then dim the headlights and run with the ditch lights in areas where there were no road crossings.
The ditch lights do not have to be on all of the time, especially in yards and meeting trains where rules provide for lights to be dimmed or extinquished entirely.
BTW, when the ditch lights were wired in with the headlight switch, they would turn off when the headlight was put on dim. If the horn was blown with the headlight on dim the ditch lights would flash until they timed out. I have seen some newer headlight switches where the position options are Dim or Bright or Bright w/Ditch Light.
By the way, the BNSF ditch lights do NOT flash at this time. I think the SD60Ms and the early SD70MACs had ditch lights that flashed when the horn blew, but everything on BNSF that I see from day-to-day does not flash. The UP does not use flashing ditch lights either. Both of these have been observed in eastern Nebraska (in case there is a regional difference)
The Union Pacific locomotives on the Sunset Route through Arizona do not have flashing ditch lights. I observed some last night running parallel to Interstate 10 in New Mexico and Arizona, and their ditch lights did not flash with sounding of the horn. It was too dark to see what type of locomotives were in the lead.
I'm absolutely certain the ditch light set up changed since I was involved in their installation around 1990. Modifications are always modified. I installed them and the LSL's on the SD40-2's about that time. At the time they were wired seperately from the headlights. I remember when hostling from inbound to outbound at Enola, when I wanted to use the ditch lights I would have to turn them on in the elect cabinet and they would flash only when using the horn. I left Conrail in 1994.