Mars lights.

[traingeek087]

I was at Galesburg Railroad days in 2001. They brought a Metra "Dinky" out for railroad days, and the engine had a mars light on it. That's what made me bring up this topic, because Metra was replacing their units, and I wondered if the new ones had the mars lights or not.

[Modelcar]

...Back in the late 60's and early 70's I was in Kingman, Az. area running automotive tests and in spare time would place myself at the Kingman depot and watch the Sante Fe Passenger trains arrive for their stop east and west....At that time most of the engines had Mars Lights and they really did present a wierd pattern of light that really got one's attention as it was slowing, especially arriving from the east and coming down the grade for the Kingman stop. That osculating red light really demanded attention as it made it's stop at the station.

[Anonymous]

Dear Sirs,


This has little to do with the Gyralites on the Roof of the CP 1400 Series A Units on Passenger, but, these Units generally had the Ice Breaker Irons to protect the Dome Car Windows from Icicles in Snow Sheds and Tunnels.


CPR had Ice Breaker Cars for Freight Trains. At first these were made from Vintage Steel Box Cars about to be Retired.


These Cars had Girders Mounted on their Roofs in the Profile of Tunnels and Snow Sheds and were Specifically designed to Protect Windshields on New Automobiles and Trucks travelling behind In-Train on Freights.


This is before the Huge Mail Box all Enclosed Auto Racks of today.


Unless these Icicle Box Cars had Steam Lines, it is unlikely they saw much Passenger Use, as they had to be on the Front of the Train to do their job. ( But behind the Steam Generators. )


In Summer, these Icicle Cars would sit in long lines in the Weeds with the Plows.


The Four Ex-ATSF Alco-GE PAs on the D&H operated into Montreal over the CP on the New York Trains ( Just to Albany, then NYC Power took over South. ) and they had the Rotating Headlight in the usual Opening on the Top of the Nose Front, and a Fixed Bulb and Reflector Headlight in the Centre of the Nose Door.


Later, but before the big PA4 Rebuild by M-K, they received Two Sealed Beam Lamps in the Lower Light.


The PAs were Lovely!!!

[ValleyX]

You could be going down the road watching that light making it's figure eight pattern and realizing that you were either getting hypnotized by it or your neck was starting to hurt.

[Hugh Jampton]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TrainFreak409

Mars lights are cool, they strobe, very slowly.

[8]TrainFreak409[8]

They don't actually strobe as such. The bulb remains on at a constant brightness. There is a complicated mechanism which moves the reflector in a figure 8 pattern, which probably gives the impression that they do.
There's a website (as usual): http://www.trainweb.org/gyra/mars.htm

But they are cool

[TrainFreak409]

Mars lights are cool, they strobe, very slowly.

[8]TrainFreak409[8]

[Brydle]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

There aren't any new locomotive running out there that come with Mars lights anymore (that I know of). Mars lights tend to be costly to maintain and repair, therefore they went out of favour with the railroads.

The 4449 Steam Locomotive still has a Mars light.

In the late fifties early 60's Canadian Pacific had them on their F7's and also mounted on the engine roof of passenger trains leaving Vancouver. Another interesting thing was a box car with a steel superstructure above it to break off icicles in tunnels to protect the dome cars.

[Anonymous]

There aren't any new locomotive running out there that come with Mars lights anymore (that I know of). Mars lights tend to be costly to maintain and repair, therefore they went out of favour with the railroads.

The 4449 Steam Locomotive still has a Mars light.

[traingeek087]

Are there any railroads/commuter trains/tourist trains in the US that still use mars lights on their locomotives? I know metra did on their F40s, do they have them on their new engines? I also know that KCS did several years back, but haven't seen any of their engines using them lately. Thanks