OK maybe these are rookie questions, but I could not find the answer it on the forums anywhere. OK - here goes:
Was the headlamp for a steam engine always on during operation?
Did it dim or even shut off (like the default setting on a DCC decoder)?
Same question for the tender lamp.
Strezzy
Hello Jim,
Before the late 1940s/early 1950s, steam engine headlights were generally off during daylight hours and only turned on when it got dark. By rule (Rule 17 in most books) the headlight was turned off when the engine and its train were clear of the main track at a meeting point, or when standing at the end of double track or at a junction to meet another train. It had to be dimmed when standing at stations where yard engines were working.
With the coming of diesels, railroads became concerned about the visibility of trains at a distance, and began requiring all locomotives, steam and diesel, to display headlights both day and night. Exactly when this happened varied with different railroads, and in many cases the practice of using the headlight in daytime was begun even before it was codified in the rule book. On the Santa Fe, I believe the 1953 edition of the book of operating rules was the first to require use of the headlight during the day.
The backup light was used exactly like the headlight when the engine had to operate backwards. But headlights and backup lights most emphatically did not automatically switch off or on when the engine changed directions. They were controlled by the engineer using switches in the cab.
Rule 18 required yard engines to display a "headlight" both front and rear by night, and later around the clock at the same time that became the common practice for road engines.
So long,
Andy
Andy Sperandeo MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
SP's 1943 rulebook says during the day locomotive headlights are to be turned on when crossing streets, roads, and highways at grade. At night, both front and rear headlights (display white light if no permanent light) to be on except in the direction of a coupled railroad car.