OK, understood. There was no other train on the other track, and previous trains had ditch lights on, and flashing for the grade crossing they go through. I wish I could have got a better look, as the site that host the web cam did a "commercial thing" just as it approached. After you opt out of the commercial, the cam comes back on, but too late to ID the loco. This wasn't a cam held by someone, it was mounted on the roof of the building. I think it was a bed and breakfast thing, along the tracks. I'll have to look again, and get the name of the building. You can find the link on RailServe.com , click on the web cam link, and there are many to choose from. This one is from Chesterton, IN. You watch the cam facing E or W, or both.
I can watch the Roanoke cam on Trains, but never the Rochelle cam. Waiting for an email response from Trains.
I have searched for info, and, ditch lights became mandatory in 1997, but, oscilating/mars lights would pass, going by what I read.
Mike.
My You Tube
If the train was meeting another, the engineer may have turned off the ditch lights so they don't blind the crew of the other locomotive, especially if they're on the ground to perform a runby inspection.
I've witnessed several instances of the engineer turning off ditch lights when meeting another train.
And in some railway videos, the ditch lights are turned off so they don't wash out the video image when the engineer sees someone with a video camera.
Earlier today, I was checking out a web cam from a link on RailServe, in Chesterton, IN. Cam looks over a busy double track main, with a seperate cam for East and West. Lots of action. What I seen, and thought looked very out of place, a double stack train, mixed locos, NS and CN, with a CN in the lead, and no ditch lights, just a Mars headlight in the front hood. Just when I was going to try and get a number on the loco, the cam sight went into "commercial mode", which it does about every 5 minutes or so, so I missed identifying the loco.
I just thought it looked out of place, and hope I see it again, so I can get a unit number.