What the heck is a Mars light??

[Anonymous]

Now that I am into DCC, I want to add lighting effects to my locos. What are these lights: 1) Mars light 2) Rotary beacon, 3) Gyralite? Which lights (LED's?) do I use? What is a good resource for which engines were equipped with which lights? The first engine I want to tackle is an SF F7A. Thank you in advance.

[Anonymous]

I think the name stood for Moline Automatic Revolving Searchlight. A sealed beam unit 'revolved' in a flat figure 8 patttern (like an infinty symbol). It was generally paired with a fixed headlight... Been a ling time since I saw one of them coming down the track...

[Anonymous]

I've done several Life Like E-7 instalations, Used a TCS141 on the last. One I did a long time ago with a Dynatrol receiver I used the existing light flasher PC board. Will try one of those with a less exspensive TCS T1-SH decoder next, and let you know how it works. I started to look at the forum to find if mars lites were always on top or did it depend on the RR?