Ditch Lights

[AgentKid]

I've got a question. Diesel's have a light which shines down into the ditch below the cab windows on each side. Under the frame and above the lead truck. When I was a kid, those were called "ditch lights". What are they called now that ditch lights are on the front of the loco, pointed forward and into the opposite ditch as Larry say's. Thank you.

AgentKid

 

[BaltACD]

Modelcar

.....And beyond the triangle of lights coming at a person at a RR crossing....some RR's engine ditch lights flash off and on as the horn is blowed for the crossing. 

This really does make an eye catching scene that a train is approaching.

Nothing can wake the brain dead.

[Modelcar]

.....And beyond the triangle of lights coming at a person at a RR crossing....some RR's engine ditch lights flash off and on as the horn is blowed for the crossing. 

This really does make an eye catching scene that a train is approaching.

[BNSFwatcher]

You, too, could get a Senior Editor's job at Trains Magazine!

[tree68]

The safety part comes from the easily recognizable triangle formed by the three lights.  When you look down the tracks, it's hard to confuse that with a reflection.

I suspect that the concept grew from the actual ditch lights used by Canadian railroads for a number of years, although those were focused on the opposite ditch.  I've seen pictures of locomotives with both auxiliary and ditch lights.

[Mike Balla jr]

In the late 1990s they past the regulation mandating twin auxileary headlights mounted on the frame of the locomotive, as a safety device, to warn pepole of trains. 

Anyone care to expain on how this is a 'safety' device, and how they came up with this as a use?