Posted By Jerry Barnes on 10/14/2008 6:56 PM
On my Zephyr, it has two side lights on the rear observation car. Just wondered if they should be colored.
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On older cars, you will see lanterns that display red to the rear and yellow to the sides. That's because on older heavy lights, often called "marker lights" by railroad personnel, the lantern was designed to rotate in its bracket, which meant, at least with some end of train car configurations, that the crew didn't have to remove them to change what it was displaying .... by rotating the lamp 90 degrees, the red was pointed inward at the car, and yellow was showed to the rear ... thereby showing a train that was clear of the main line and stopped, as at a meeting or waiting point. Trains approaching from the rear could tell where the end of the other train was, and that it was in the clear, on the siding where it should be as they roared toward the station. Once ready to start moving again, the lamp would be rotated back out to show red to the rear .... and it saved swapping them side to side as would otherwise be necessary.
So, on your model, showing yellow to the non-rear facing sides of the four lens marker lamp would be a propos. Should you need the actual rule, I can publish it from home.
Matthew (OV)