Brightness of headlight in the 1930s to 1950s

[Overmod]

NDG

Poor taste railfans would all rotate their heads when a RDC went by...

Oh, that's evil!

KCS at one time ran a variant of Gyralite which simply had a steady white rotary beam.  This was remarkably good at lighting up details in the 'perimeter view' via persistence of vision that wouldn't have been seen otherwise unless floodlit at millions of candlepower.  I still consider ditchlighting a poor substitute.  BUT I can see that if this were the ONLY good illumination forward, you'd easily wind up trying to follow the bright spot around and around and ar.......

Useful page on Gyralights here..  Note the links to Beam Patterns and to the patent drawings; they work. 

 

[Jones1945]

OH MY! Thanks a lot for the story and the links, NDG and Overmod. This is like a party of spinning lights!

Overmod

...BUT I can see that if this were the ONLY good illumination forward, you'd easily wind up trying to follow the bright spot around and around and ar.......

This reminds me of a nursery rhyme which my friend once sang to me at Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, the lyric is "You spin me right round, baby, right round, like a record baby, right round round round......" if I remember correctly. By the way, I did feel dizzy when I was looking the spinning light from the YouTube video.

Overmod

Useful page on Gyralights here..  Note the links to Beam Patterns and to the patent drawings; they work. 

That is a very informative website about the Gyralights! 

I am still searching for the model of the headlights used on the Dreyfuss Hudsons and PRR S1. I think adding some Woodlite headlamps on the S1 for decoration might look cool... gonna photoshop some pics to see how it would have looked. 

 

[Overmod]

Jones1945

This reminds me of a nursery rhyme which my friend once sang to me at Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, the lyric is "You spin me right round, baby, right round, like a record baby, right round round round......" if I remember correctly.

That's part of the (very creepy) lyrics to the Dead or Alive song from the Eighties.  Pete Burns said "the record company said it was awful. It was unanimous – it was awful, it was rubbish."  And after all these years ... I find I still agree.

Flo Rida and Ke$ha dug it up in 2009 and succeeded in making it creepy in a decided other direction ... but I digress.

Woodlites as ditch lights for the S1 would be good indeed ... from the outside.  You should remember that Woodlites as actual lights were unbelievably sucky, almost poster children for mandatory adoption of sealed-beams later in the Thirties that held up real, functional headlight adoption in the United States for decades.  In the S1 era you'd be better off adapting the Woodlites as markers: they would still be dim, but possibly adequate.  Nowadays you could cram halogens or diodes in there ... but the polished case makes cooling them an iffy thing, so you better adapt CPU-cooling heat sink tech from the computer industry with the heat-exchange coolant tubes going through the mounting.  Personally I'd prefer the recessed XKE-like covers as used on the Baureihe 05s ... if you can implement them so as not to look either walleyed or cross-eyed, which can be a bit of a problem.

Note the discussion about 'preferred' pattern for the Mars 300/301 having most of the weight in the centerline, but 'dipping' in the corners to give ditchlight effect via persistence of vision with the single 93cpm beam.  That would be interesting to see from a cab, being perhaps less hypnotic in its effect.

You all may remember that one of the reasons to abandon the 'shovelnose' was the "highway hypnosis" that endless onrushing ties in the headlight glare would induce in enginemen.  I can only imagine the added horror that a nonlinear sweep would add to this sight picture...

... of course, you could go MUCH too far in the other direction, elevating the cab windows; take the Great Northern W-1 as an example and imagine tunnels coming at you ... now flickeringly lit like something out of a James Whale movie.  After a while of that I wouldn't be surprised to be ducking all night in my sleep...

[Jones1945]

Overmod

That's part of the (very creepy) lyrics to the Dead or Alive song from the Eighties.  Pete Burns said "the record company said it was awful. It was unanimous – it was awful, it was rubbish."  And after all these years ... I find I still agree.

Flo Rida and Ke$ha dug it up in 2009 and succeeded in making it creepy in a decided other direction ... but I digress...

I bet you were holding your laugh when typing the reply, Mr. Overmod. If my silly joke could create the same effect as "throwing out a minnow to catch a whale", I think it worth our effort to make this discussion even more delightful. Though I also don't want our reader to search for the newer and creepier "direction" of that song, there are too many beautiful things waiting for us to explore! My friend was actually singing the first section of my favorite aria (at the time) "Piangerò la sorte mia" from the "Giulio Cesare" by G.F Handel. The echo was so strong in the cave but there was nobody there until she started singing. 

 

Overmod

Woodlites as ditch lights for the S1 would be good indeed ... from the outside.  You should remember that Woodlites as actual lights were unbelievably sucky, almost poster children for mandatory adoption of sealed-beams later in the Thirties that held up real, functional headlight adoption in the United States for decades.  In the S1 era you'd be better off adapting the Woodlites as markers: they would still be dim, but possibly adequate.  Nowadays you could cram halogens or diodes in there ... but the polished case makes cooling them an iffy thing, so you better adapt CPU-cooling heat sink tech from the computer industry with the heat-exchange coolant tubes going through the mounting.  Personally I'd prefer the recessed XKE-like covers as used on the Baureihe 05s ... if you can implement them so as not to look either walleyed or cross-eyed, which can be a bit of a problem.

No disagreement here, Mr. Overmod. That is why I used the term "decoration". I am not sure if there was a larger model of the Woodlites which could be installed on the S1, if Raymond Loewy had this idea, I believe he would have created a tailor-made by himself or requested the Woodlites to do it. I think the main single headlight was the focus and the most important feature of the S1's front end design, therefore, the size of other decorative "ditch lights" couldn't steal its thunder, but large enough to put the heat sink or mini fans for cooling. Speaking of the headlights on the XKE, the design reminds me of the "lower headlights" on the 1938 Phantom Corsair, my dream car!

 

Overmod

...I can only imagine the added horror that a nonlinear sweep would add to this sight picture...

I love James Whale's arts and productions. Almost everything single film frame of his movies, shown the adhere to the standard of perfection. I believe he would have done even better in the era of the color motion picture when he could have played with the color temperature and use of different kinds of lights for stage production and photography.  

Overmod

... of course, you could go MUCH too far in the other direction, elevating the cab windows; take the Great Northern W-1 as an example and imagine tunnels coming at you ... now flickeringly lit like something out of a James Whale movie.  After a while of that I wouldn't be surprised to be ducking all night in my sleep...

"Before he ducked under the control panel, he saw a flickering image of a well-dressed lady holding her child's hand, standing so close to the track that he thought the engine was gonna run them over. He woke up in a panic, only to find him ducking all night in his sleep. But when he tried to get out of bed, he noted he was sleeping in his former house, the house that he built for his ex-wife who left him for another man.

He saw the clock on the wall, gifted by his colleague, also his best friend who was an engineer he worked with and lost his life in WWII, reminded him the story of the lady and her child disappeared in the forest 20 years ago. Suddenly, he realized that he was dreaming inside another dream, but everything around him looked unbelievably realistic.

He tried to wake up and started panicking...... He saw the fireplace turning into a locomotive firebox which triggered his memories of working as a fireman. He put his hand inside the opened firebox, the flame, the heat, and the pain, melted his dream like a melting-film which finally took him back to reality......"  

 

[Overmod]

My Lord, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, the thing that made Bubbles Silverman an opera star.  Hard to believe it was almost unknown before 1977 ... which seems just yesterday.

[Flintlock76]

Nobody tells me anything.

If I'd known there was going to be some opera in this thread I'd have prepared myself a wine and cheese platter!  

[Jones1945]

Sorry for my late reply, Mr. Overmod, and Wayne. I just found myself missed the party of Canada Day but glad to see you guys had a nice time with Vince and our forumer! Looking forward to the next party hosted by you guys.