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Thank you all for the information on beacons.  I had the impression that beacons were almost universally used, but apparently that is not the case.  I can see how they could become irritating to work around at night as well as being useful in sighting a locomotive moving in a yard at night.  I know how much concern the industry has for grade crossing safety, and was wondering if the beacons were intended to take on the function of Mars lights.  If so, it would seem that the beacons would have far less warning impact than Mars lights, but I understand that the advantage of Mars lights was offset by their high maintenance cost.   <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> Even the mechanically rotating beacons are mechanically simpler than the mechanics of Mars lights.  In this day and age, it would seem that any sort of animated lighting display could be accomplished with a solid-state system.  There must be many patents for ideas that would accomplish the display of Mars lights without the mechanism, yet I have seen no adoption of such technology.   <o:p></o:p>For beacons to provide a meaningful grade crossing warning, it seems like they would have to put out a lot more light than they do.  If they put out that much light and ran full time, they would drive everybody crazy.  So, such a high output beacon would need to be set up to only run when approaching grade crossings.  Has any road ever done that?
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