Class lights on Switchers

[Trainman440]

Hi, I'm still learning about class lights. 

Are marker/class lights always off when a 0-4-0/0-6-0/0-8-0 is doing switching duties in the yard?

Thanks

[jrbernier]

  If is not on the mainline with a Clearance Card, it is not a 'train'.  It does not need to have Class Lights even mounted if it is operating in 'Yard Limits'.  This may include a main track within yard limits(defined in the timetable/special instructions).

  If it goes out on the mainline to switch some industries outside of yard limits, then it will need a the above paperwork/markers/flags...

Jim

[Trainman440]

Ok, I get it now. 

Thanks!

[dehusman]

jrbernier

If is not on the mainline with a Clearance Card, it is not a 'train'. It does not need to have Class Lights even mounted if it is operating in 'Yard Limits'. This may include a main track within yard limits(defined in the timetable/special instructions). If it goes out on the mainline to switch some industries outside of yard limits, then it will need a the above paperwork/markers/flags...

Sorta kinda. 

A lot of things mixed in here which are sorta true, but can easily get miscontrued.

The rulebook answer is it doesn't need class lights because its not a section or an extra.

A clearance card doesn't define a train.  A train is generally defined as " An engine or engines coupled, with or without cars, displaying markers."  Nothing about a clearance card.  All about markers.

The rules on classification lights just says that if the train is a section of a regular train it needs to display green lights and if its an extra train it needs to display white lights.  Nothing about yard limits or clearance cards (rules 20 and 21).  The only way a train gets to be a section or an extra train is by issuing it a train order making it an extra or a section.

If the switcher is not an extra and not a regular train (it falls into the category of an "engine") doesn't need to display class lights. 

The "sorta" part about yard limits comes into play not about what happens in yard limits, but what happens outside yard limits.  Yard limits allow trains and engines to use the main track (not protecting against extras, etc.  Rule 93).  In yard limits an engine (since the switcher isn't displaying markers its not a train, so its neither a section of a regular train nor an extra train) can use the main at will (clearing first class trains).  The problem comes when the switcher goes outside yard limits.  Since the engine is outside yard limits it needs some other authority to occupy the main track.  If the switcher is authorized by a train order making it an extra train (or a section of a regular train, other than the last section) that would do two things, first it would make it a train and require it to operate with markers and second would make it a train that would be required to display class lights.

If it operated as a regular train or the last section of a regular train it would require markers but not class lights.  If it operated outside yard limits under flag protection (rule 99) it would need neither markers nor class lights.

In any scenario that involves it being an extra or a section would require train orders, any time train orders are delivered it requires a clearance.  On a really technical note, the engine might already "have" a clearance, since it there were any train orders that affect its movements, they would have been given to the yardmaster (with a clearance) and he would be responsible for communicating them to the engines.