Ditch lights--steady or flashing?

[BigJim]

Paul Milenkovic

I thought the ditch lights flash with then horn is blown -- greater visibility at road crossings.

Some do, some don't/or didn't. Before I retired, NS units flashed when the horn was blown, but, a lot of the Conrail units did not. I don't know if that has changed in the last eight years or not.

One other nice thing about a lot of the Conrail units was that they were on a separate circuit from the headlight. Where on the NS unit the ditch lights turned off when you dimmed the headlight, on the CR units you could dim the headlight and keep the ditch lights on. This was very helpful when running in fog at night.

[Paul Milenkovic]

I thought the ditch lights flash with then horn is blown -- greater visibility at road crossings.

[NP Eddie]

I a railfan and retired Class 1, I see North Star and Amtrak with flashing ditch lights and feel that the flashing lights are better to see. The BNSF has steady ditch lights.  Do the BNSF locomotives have a switch in the locomotive cab to move from steady to flashing?

Ed Burns